WORLD WATCH ONE IN THIS ISSUE

Introduction from Dan “Big Shoulders” Berger, the Editor Libertyville, IL Page 1

EXCLUSIVE: Buckaroo Reno of Memphis Banzai Novel Excerpt By way of E.M. Rauch Page 2

Short Takes WWO Staff Pages 3-4

INTERVIEW: Steve “Rainbow Kitty” Mattsson Ron Veto, Jet Grip Portland, OR Pages 5-6

INTERVIEW: Rexford L. Metz, ASC Steve Mattsson Pages 7-10

More Jet Car BTS World Watch One Staff Pages 11-12

Project Sawtooth: Tim “Tim Boo Ba” Monro

Masado Banzai’s Jet Car Renton, WA Pages 13-14

A Brief History of Speed: Evolution of the Jet Car Dan Berger Pages 15-19

Skirmish on the Salt Flats Jet Car Special Insert Dan Berger Pages 20-23

INTERVIEW: Dave Winfield, Designer Steve Mattsson Pages 24-25

Superman in the Scott “Camelot” Tate Eighth Dimension? Alamosa, CO Page 26

INTERVIEW: Mike and Denise Okuda Dan Berger Pages 27-29

Coming Attractions Scott Tate and Rich “FilmBuff” Drees Page 30

Finding Lost Footage for Sean “Figment” Murphy the Special Edition DVD Burke, VA Pages 31-33

Declassifying the

Documentary Sean Murphy Page 34

Behind the Scenes of the

Special Edition DVD Sean Murphy Pages 35-39

The Making of Into the 8th Dimension Dan Berger Pages 40-46

Buckaroo Blu-/DVD Extras! Dan Berger and Sean Murphy Pages 47-49

From the Colorado Bureau Office Scott Tate Page 50

Your Moment of Zen Page 51

Back Cover BBI Rolo Tomasi

Somewhere in Southern

Acknowledgements Once again, we are running a little behind deadline. How? Why? Damn it, it’s not fair! Ok, there are good reasons why things took longer than expected this issue. For starters, there was a stockpile of interview material that needed to be addressed. Since this is the Acknowledgements section, I am here to acknowledge that transcribing interviews sucks. The cover for this issue also presented logistical challenges, which created delays. But the deeds are done, the issue marches on, and it is a better issue for the difficulties met along the way. In the hot seat: It’s a little crazy to think about it, but most of the interviews in this issue date back to last summer. We apologize for the wait and thank one and all for their contributions: Heather Buckley, Michael Felsher, Ethan Halo, Rexford Metz, Mojo, Denise Okuda, Mike Okuda, W. D. Richter, Emile Smith, and Ron Veto. A special note of thanks to Earl Mack Rauch for bugging Reno and snagging that excerpt from the novel for us. Thanks also to Denise and Mike Okuda at the Banzai Institute Facebook page for their generous assistance in getting the word out about World Watch One and their contributions to Banzai fandom in general. We extend our appreciation to Dan Berger, Barry Chan, Matt Haley, and Mike Okuda for creating the graphic elements that appear in this issue. Thanks also go out to Chris “ArcLight” Wike for hosting the newsletter’s presence on the interwebs at the World Watch OnLine library and Sean Murphy for doing the same at the Buckaroo Banzai FAQ. Many thanks to our regular contributors for doing their thing: Dan Berger, Barry Chan, Steve Mattsson, Sean Murphy, Steven H Silver, and Scott Tate. Additional thanks go to Rich Drees for some additional Johnny-on- the-spot writing. Special thanks to Barry Chan, Sean Murphy, and Steven H Silver for their proofing of this issue’s contents. Commendations go to Barry Chan for pulling emergency artistic duty on both the front and back covers for this issue. Originally, Filmmaker Emile Smith was slated to spruce the cover with a render straight from the Jet Car trailer promoting Buckaroo Banzai: Ancient Secrets & New Mysteries; but it was not to be...this time. We’re working on it. Thanks go to both Barry and Emile for their efforts. We salute you! Get in the game: World Watch One does not write or illustrate itself. All are invited to contribute to the next issue. Don’t worry about making it perfect. We’d just love to hear from you. See below for contact information and further encouragement. Photo/Art Credits are granted attribution within the body of the newsletter. All images have been used in accordance with the principles of fair use as outlined in 17 U.S.C. § 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976. I’m Warning You… This newsletter is not meant for commercial distribution. If you purchased a copy of this newsletter, demand your money back and report the seller to the proper authorities, then look for a free copy on-line. We’re not getting paid, you’re not gonna get paid, nobody gets paid! Dig it. Submissions to World Watch One are strongly encouraged. Seriously, we would love to see your work in the pages of this very newsletter. All are welcome. Please contact us at [email protected] for details.

Front Cover:

On the cover this issue, BBI Rolo Tomasi pays tribute to the 1980’s Jet Car that propelled Buckaroo and Team Banzai into history on June 11, 1981; forty years ago this month. Masado and Sandra Banzai also feature prominently, along with the 1954 Jet Car they built with Toichi Hikita. The Jet Car image was created in Adobe Illustrator imported into Photoshop for the cover composition. It's amazing what can be created from a single film frame. Rolo has an affinity for art from technical illustration to Golden-Age illustrators, from and Doug Chiang to N.C. Wyeth and J.C. Leyendecker--and their influences. An art instructor once told him; "Whichever artist you admire, study whom they studied."

Questions? Comments? Want to send us an article or illustration? Go for it, compadre! Contact us at [email protected].

FOLLOW THE BANZAI INSTITUTE ON FACEBOOK FOLLOW WORLD WATCH ONE ON FACEBOOK 1

Looking to the past, racing towards the future In the summer of 2020, World Watch One’s Steve Mattsson made the WORLD WATCH ONE acquaintance of two gentlemen responsible for the amazing Jet Car footage seen in NEWSLETTER OF TEAM BANZAI The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai—Film Grip Ron Veto and second unit Cinematographer Rex Metz. Mr. Metz was also responsible for capturing footage of STAFF ’s 526.277 mph speed record in his Spirit of America jet car on Dan “Big Shoulders” Berger October 15, 1964. The beginnings of a Jet Car issue were in hand, and that sent Barry “Rolo Tomasi” Chan Steve and yours truly down a couple of related rabbit holes, as you will soon see. Steve “Rainbow Kitty” Mattsson Sean “Figment” Murphy Jet weren’t the only thing on our minds in this issue. Last summer proved to Steven “Green Town” Silver be an interview windfall for the newsletter, one that we have finally caught up with Scott “Camelot” Tate on the editing front. You may remember Mike and Denise Okuda discussing Buckaroo Banzai: Ancient Secrets & New Mysteries in our August 2020 issue. Our EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD: conversation also involved their work on the Apple TV+ series For All Mankind. Dr. Buckaroo Banzai We have included that portion of their interview in this issue for your enjoyment. Reno of Memphis Mrs. E. Johnson We were honored to interview producers Michael Felsher and Heather Buckley Earl Mac Rauch about making Into the 8th Dimension, the feature length Buckaroo Banzai W. D. Richter documentary that appeared in SHOUT! Factory’s excellent Blu-ray edition of the film. It took a bit of doing to boil sixteen pages of transcripts down into an article, WORLD WATCH ONE is published irregularly by The Banzai Institute for but I managed. Now you can enjoy the meta experience of reading the making-of Biomedical Engineering and Strategic article about the making-of documentary, and that’s just on the Blu-ray side. Information. This edition originated in World Watch One’s Chicago Bureau We also had the pleasure of interviewing VFX guru Adam “Mojo” Lebowitz office: c/o Dan Berger, 507 Drake regarding his part in the Buckaroo Banzai Special Edition DVD. Sean Murphy took Street, Libertyville, IL 60048. Mojo’s interview as a starting point for a deeper dive into the making of the DVD International agreements and national which, consequently, has contributed at least some content to every video release laws protect copyrighted material. This of the film that has followed. We’ve even included a handy breakdown of all the newsletter is not to be reprinted, resold, content unique to each of the domestic and foreign DVD and Blu-ray releases since or reproduced in part or in whole without the written consent of the 2002, in case you are interested in finding all of the available content. authors, artists, and editors. The contents of this newsletter are There is a remarkable amount of new Buckaroo media in the works these days. copyrighted by the authors and artists. Earlier this month, yours truly appeared in an episode of the Deep Cuts podcast devoted to Buckaroo Banzai. If that wasn’t enough, two Hong Kong Cavaliers crashed the party at the end of the episode, and that’s just for starters. We have been gently telling good readers for years now that a certain Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League novel is coming in the future. We may have buried the lede as a result, to see if people were paying attention. Then a funny thing happened. This January, I reached out to Reno at the Banzai Institute through Earl Mac Rauch, asking if he had any update about when the novel would be published. Mac’s reply, “Let me check on that.” The day after that email, Dark Horse officially announced the 2021 release of Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League, et al. A Compendium of Evils. The novel has seen a couple of delays to the release date since then, but now the cat is out of the bag and we’re done being subtle. In addition to all of that Jet Car goodness to savor, we also present you with an exclusive Jet Car-related excerpt from Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League for good measure. We even have a cover memorializing the Jet Car’s history and exploits, courtesy of World Watch One staff artist Barry Chan. Barry. We hope that it whets your appetite for more. While reflecting on the making of Into the 8th Dimension, it dawned on me that The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai turns thirty-seven this year. Memories are fading, and people don’t live forever. For over fifteen years now one of our main interests has been in documenting the docudrama through the stories of the people who made it, while that’s still possible. But World Watch One has also marched forward with the hope that there will be more Buckaroo in the future. At times we have had the good fortune to publish new glimpses into that world through the writings of The Reno Kid provided by Earl Mac Rauch. With Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League et al., it is heartening to think that there will be even broader fields to explore in the not too distant future. -DB 2

World Watch One Exclusive: Excerpt from Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League et al. A Compendium of Evils By Reno the Kid with E. M. Rauch When Dr. B. Banzai first suggested that Reno the Kid should collect a volume of Team Banzai’s adventures back in 1983, Reno asked excitedly, “Could we collect many together?” “As many as the book will hold,” Buckaroo assured him. Clearly, one book alone could never contain the many adventures of Buckaroo Banzai. We hope you enjoy this exclusive glimpse into the long-awaited next volume. The driver with the power-packed physique wasn’t talking but his silence did not mean that the truth didn’t hurt. Why couldn’t he look at himself in the mirror? Could it be because he was an empty shell who had suppressed his feelings so deeply that he would never be able to retrieve them, much less analyze them? He preferred to blame the glare of a mysterious mini spotlight that seemed to follow his every move or the bank of overhead monitors, rather than a mental disorder; yet speeding toward the canyon’s solid wall, he saw no way out, no escaping his fate. In 2.74322 seconds, he would hit the rocks, unless he ejected…now!

But of course he couldn’t stop; there could be no stopping now. He had perhaps still a second or two in which to eject and lose the Jet Car or ride it out, though clearly there was a problem either with the software or the Jet Car’s weight-balance dynamic. Like everyone, he had made his fair share of mistakes in life, but this one could be the last. To stay or go? That was the real pressing question. Hit the brakes or roll the dice, as in continue rolling forward with his life in the precarious balance? Which was the easy way out? Which the hard? For a fleeting instant he was between his parents, a blissful child riding in the front seat down a country lane…his father behind the wheel, on the right…somewhere in Japan? He felt like speaking, but they both appeared deep in thought, musing to themselves behind stares that stretched on and on. “Low on fuel…and Xan still behind us,” the father said, glancing anxiously at the mirror. “But it will be all right?” said the worried mother, or perhaps someone else, because when Buckaroo turned his head, he saw his true love sitting next to him in a moment of sweet blessed relief and smiling in the eye of the storm, as if to say, “I’ll be fine.” At last he found his voice, long enough to ask, “Penny…will we ever be the same?” “Sometimes you have to say goodbye,” she said.

Against this Buckaroo had no answer. “I’ll never give up,” he vowed but now experienced a sudden attack of nerves. Had he forgotten to attach the emergency spool of nylon filament, so he could find his way back home in case he got trapped or lost? And what about the left front mud tire? He couldn’t remember if he had replaced it or if he was still driving with the donut spare. And the shock absorbers! How could he have forgotten to replace them? Or check his jake brake… As if reading his mind, Xan said, “You should have gone with the GT package. But don’t worry about the flat tire. It’s only flat on the bottom. Ha, ha! And the seat covers, is this really the color you wanted?”

Ordering the Buckaroo Banzai Against the World Crime League Hardcover Novel is as easy as 1…2…3!

1. Ask your local independent bookstore to order it for you now and pick it

up this October. Find your local independent bookstore here.

2. Order it directly from Dark Horse Books for a 30% discount.

3. Purchase it from any of these fine on-line retailers:

Powells.com, Amazon.com, Barnesandnobel.com, Bookamillion.com, !ndigo 3

Short Takes theorized that Utopia Planitia used to be the site of an ocean, and that significant stores of water ice remain WWO Staff trapped beneath the surface. Zhurong’s radar instrumentation is a capability unmatched by American The Hong Kong Cavaliers Take Deep Cuts rovers at present. As of this writing, the Zhurong rover began its 90 day planned exploration of the surface on May 21st, with an extended mission likely for as long as the vehicle lasts. Tianwen-1 joins a growing list of international space missions bound for the skies above Mars as well as the surface of the planet and its moons. Could a new space race for a human piloted mission to Mars be far behind? Stay tuned.

Happy Birthday, Maserati Bora! In the novel Buckaroo Banzai, Rawhide is briefing the team about Dr. Lizardo’s escape from the Trenton Home for the Criminally Insane. He reports that Lizardo fled, “… in a sports car belonging to one of the staff physicians.” Later the car is identified generically as a Maserati. In the film, Rawhide says that Lizardo, “… cops a Maserati Bora” and “totaled it a block away.” It’s an oddly specific detail. Later in the novel, more intrigue is added when it is discovered that the fingerprints of Hanoi Xan’s Lieutenant, Lo Pep, were found in the Maserati.

Source: Deep Cuts Podcast Buckaroo Banzai is named checked in an article about Hong Kong Cavaliers Pinky Carruthers (Billy Vera) and this year’s Fiftieth Anniversary of the Bora by Ben Hsu. Reno (Pepe Serna) were recently heard literally crashing Hsu tells us that the Bora’s designer, Giorgetto Giugiaro, the end of the Deep Cuts podcast released on May 12, also designed the iconic DeLorean sports car. Back to 2021. Tune into Case File #65 as Dave Baker and the Future is a film that shares cast, crew, and concepts Andrew Price host two hours of Buckaroo Banzai banter in common with Buckaroo Banzai. The DeLorean with World Watch One’s Dan Berger. The episode time machine and the Jet Car are sisters in many ways. If explores some of the history and operational madness of any enterprising promoters out there put together a car this very newsletter, as well as a deep dive into the film show featuring Buckaroo’s Jet Car, the DeLorean time itself and the franchise it kind of became, but not exactly. machine, a Maserati Bora, and Craig Breedlove’s Spirit Be sure to stick around until the end for Pinky and Reno, of America please send press passes to the Chicago voiced by the original actors and scripted by Earl Mac offices of World Watch One. Rauch himself! Also tune in next issue for some behind-the-scenes on the making of the podcast, and the appearance by the Hong Kong Cavaliers in particular. China Joins the Race to Mars NASA’s Curiosity rover received some company on the surface of Mars this month with the successful touchdown of China’s Tianwen-1 lander at the Utopia Planitia impact basin on May 14th; the same region staked-out by NASA’s Viking 2 lander in 1976. Tianwen- 1 ferried company of another sort to the surface as well— a rover vehicle named Zhurong, equipped with a unique sub-surface radar designed to look for water ice. It is Source: Andrew Yeadon/http://automobilemag.com 4

In Memorium: Norman Lloyd There Can Be Only Josh

Arizona Josh Swain (L) vs Nebraska Josh Swain (R). Source: autisticmob On April 24, 2020, an Arizona civil engineering student named Josh Swain channeled his lockdown boredom and, perhaps, Clancy Brown’s skull-wearing, sword- wielding Kurgan from Highlander into what began as a joke. Pursuing his own peculiar version of the Gathering, Josh messaged all of the Facebook users he could find who were also named Josh Swain, challenging them to meet as a group one year from that date in a fight to determine the one true Josh Swain. Randomly chosen coordinates within the more or less central location of Lincoln, Nebraska were proposed as the field of combat. The humorous notion soon gained traction on social media, embraced by Joshes with other last names and by eager would-be spectators. As the date approached, it became apparent to Swain that some sort of gathering Source: Wikipedia might actually happen. The selected coordinates turned out to be on private land owned by someone with no Actor Norman Lloyd (b.Norman Perlmutter, 1914) interest in the event, so the site was shifted to a nearby died on May 11. Lloyd was part of Orson Welles’ Mercury park. Swain, wanting to steer the event towards a good Theatre and helped broadcast information about the cause, organized efforts to help raise money for the successful Red Lectroid invasion that took place on Children’s Hospital & Medical Center Foundation of October 31, 1938 under the guise of a dramatization of Omaha, Nebraska, and a food drive to benefit Lincoln. H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds. Lloyd began performing On April 24, 2021, more than 900 people converged in Vaudeville and was a professional actor by the age of from across the country, including 50ish Joshes. Only 9. He made his Broadway debut in 1935 in Noah. He left two were full Josh Swains. The two Swains engaged in the Mercury Theatre company shortly before production rock, paper, scissors, with the Josh who began all this began on Citizen Kane and always regretted the decision. emerging victorious. A second round of combat, open to He later appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Saboteur. He all Joshes, involved swatting each other with pool appeared with Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton in noodles. A third round of pool noodling opened up for Limelight and with Robin Willians in Dead Poet’s anyone present who wanted to participate, with an honor Society. His television appearances included episodes of system in place trusting anyone on the receiving end of a The , : The Next Generation, and noodle to declare themselves out. a recurring role on St. Elsewhere. His final film role was in Amy Schumer’s Trainwreck when he was 101 years All this good-natured Joshing raised more than $14,000 old. From the 1960s through the early 1980s, he tried his and 200+ pounds of food for charity, and a California hand at directing television movies and tv episodes. winery called Josh Cellars subsequently donated an During that time, he also worked as a television additional $30,000. A local four-year-old boy named producer. Lloyd was the subject of the 2007 Josh Vinson, Jr. was happily declared the day’s overall documentary Who Is Norman Lloyd? winner. And not even the Kurgan can spoil that. 5

INTERVIEW: Ron Veto, Jet Car Grip By Steve Mattsson Ron Veto worked as a stunt man in Hollywood before switching to grip work. He mounted the cameras on the Jet Car for The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension. Currently, he is a Steadicam Pro owner and operator. Ron posted some amazing behind- the-scenes photos of the Jet Car shoot on his Facebook page and I wanted to know more about them. Steve Mattsson: Ron—tell me more about those photos! Ron Veto: I took those images on my Nikon FM 35 mm film camera at the El Mirage Dry Lake Bed in the Mojave Desert. Pictured in the second photo are Rexford L. Metz, ASC—Director of Photography: second unit. Louis

Niemeyer—First Assistant Cameraman: second unit, and Ron Veto, Jet Car Grip extraordinaire. Credit: Rex Metz Jim Arnett—Stunt Coordinator is standing in the blue shorts. Jim was a humble, quiet, macho stuntman. He people in the world to make stunts happen. Rex was big doubled for Paul Newman in Butch Cassidy and the time back then. He did the famous chase scene through Sundance Kid. the streets of San Francisco for Bullitt with Steve McQueen. SM: You worked with Rex Metz for many years… SM: What do you remember about the Jet Car shoot? RV: I worked for Rex as his Dolly Grip, his Key Grip, and aerial assistant cameraman. Finally, after 20 years I RV: We shot it in the summer heat at El Mirage in became his camera operator and Steadicam operator. We California. We mounted four Panaflex cameras and an did the television show, Pickett Fences and so many Eyemo on that wild beast. It was so hot you could fry an films. egg on the Jet Car. Just touching any metal burnt your skin. The Jet Car broke down a few times but they SM: Tell us about working with Rex on Buckaroo managed to get it going without too much drama. It Banzai… tracked very straight and we never felt in real danger, RV: Buckaroo Banzai was a short gig for us. We other than that associated with normal car stunts. specialized in action sequences and big second units. SM: The Jet Car shoot took place early during the Many times the second unit was larger than the first production of Buckaroo Banzai, while Jordan unit. We had it made. We got all the toys and the best Cronenweth was still the Director of Photography. Did you work with him? RV: I worked with Jordan Cronenweth briefly on BB. Later, I worked for dear Jordan for many years as his dolly grip. He took us everywhere. His son Jeff and I are very good friends. Jordan developed the “Cronencone”, a directional light box. His work on Blade Runner set a film look and style that others are still trying to copy. His secrets were in his timing lights and how he exposed the film. Jordan was the best, the nicest, and the coolest guy around. Even in his illness he had class. SM: Your father worked as a stuntman in film… RV: My Dad was the only Redshirt on Star Trek to never Hot stuff: (L to R) Rex Metz, Louis Niemeyer, and Jim Arnett die. LOL! He worked the show all the time. During my weather the blistering heat of the El Mirage Dry Lake Bed, teen years I would just go to Desilu Studios to wait for Mojave Desert, capturing some hard-earned Jet Car coverage. Source: Ron Veto him. I'd walk around the studio onto Stage 31, where the Enterprise set was, looking for my Dad. There would be 6 green faced aliens with antenna coming from their heads SM: Great stories, Ron—thank you for sharing them. in the hallways playing gin and reading racing forms— Any last observations about the shoot at El Mirage? fun times. He took me to a lot of his jobs. RV: It was just us guys, a few Panaflexes, and the Jet Car SM: Is that how you got your start in the business? playing in the desert. How can you beat that? No drama, just sunburns. It was lot of fun to share the photos 30 RV: I became a stuntman doing some of his jobs under years later. our same name. The other stuntmen were his friends and they watched out for me not to get hurt or get SM: Thanks, Ron—I’m so glad you did! screwed by the production with my money. Ha. A big World Watch One thank you to Ron who SM: What else did your Father work on? graciously offered to help us contact Rexford Metz. You can read Rex’s interview next in this issue. RV: I see Dad in Star Trek, The Ten Commandments, King of Kings, and Pork Chop Hill all the time. Saw him If you want to learn more about Ron’s work, check out last week on No Time for Sergeants. He had an infamous his IMDB page and his award winning travel bit part as a protester in a Marlon Brando film called The photography. You can order Ron’s book Plastic Fantastic Ugly American. He was a great friend of Brando. Marlon Does the City of Angels from Amazon (18 years of age and Elvis would come to our house to visit. I had many and older). It’s a whimsical, risqué, photo fairy tale about pieces of apple pie across the dinner table with Elvis. how faith and love can defeat prejudice, discrimination, Marlon used to play with me in the grass in the backyard and racism. all the time.

Take a picture, it will last longer! In the era before everyone in the Mojave Desert to capture the Jet Car’s triumph of man on the planet had a smart phone with a high quality digital over mountain. While entertainment journalism tends to focus camera, candid snaps required a little more effort and on actors and directors, many of the behind-the-scenes intentionality to make sure certain moments were preserved technical trials and triumphs of a film are captured and photographically. Fortunately for us, Ron Veto brought his preserved in photos like these taken by members of the film Nikon FM 35 mm film camera to the El Mirage Dry Lake Bed crew. Source: Ron Veto 7

INTERVIEW: Rexford L. Metz, ASC Jock Cinematographer By Steve Mattsson Variety called Rex Metz, “The King of the second-unit cinematographers.” He is renowned for being able to get the shot on land, sea, or air. Rex was the “Director of Photography: second unit” for the Buckaroo Banzai Jet Car shoot at the El Mirage Dry Lake Bed in California, but that wasn’t his first experience with shooting a jet car at speed. Steve Mattsson: Rex, you were the cinematographer for the Academy Award nominated documentary The Spirit of America. How’d you get involved in shooting Craig Breedlove’s attempt to break the world ? Rex Metz. Credit: Jacob Abrams Rex Metz: I was into drag racing and I met Breedlove through that scene. My brother-in-law, James Deist, was SM: There is video for a Beach Boys song that somebody the builder of the parachutes that were on the car. put together using your footage from the 1963 run. Jimmy’s company was called Deist Safety Equipment. We put the first parachute on dragsters at Whiteman Air RM: There’s also film from the 1964 attempt when Park in San Fernando during the late ‘50s. I was on the Breedlove broke the 500 mph barrier and then crashed. All of that stuff is my footage. I was there when he was Bonneville Salt Flats when Art Arfons, Mickey Thompson, Craig Breedlove, and others were racing up on the bank of the dike after the crash and said, “For there in the ‘60s. my next trick, I’ll set myself on fire.” SM: I imagine it was tougher to get coverage for a record SM: I couldn’t find the complete The Spirit of America documentary anywhere online, but you can order a attempt than it was for the Jet Car shoot in Buckaroo— print-on-demand copy for $10.95 through a partnership did you get to mount cameras to Breedlove’s car? between the National Archives and Amazon. RM: Sure, we had a GSAP aerial gun camera mounted in RM: I called the Library of Congress a few years back the tail fin shooting 16mm. We had a camera mounted on the right rear wheel strut that caught the nosecone and got myself a copy. Now it’s somewhere in a box with and the centerline during the run. For the record attempt hundreds of other DVDs. I’ve moved a couple of times I had a camera on a chase fixed-wing and a couple of since I was teaching film in at Florida State University guys in towers with long lenses. The rest of the time it and unfortunately I have no idea where the box is. was just me. I used an Arri IIC and an Eyemo shooting 35mm. SM: Could you compare shooting the Breedlove and Banzai jet cars? How was El Mirage in 1983 different from Bonneville in 1963? RM: The money for the documentary came from Shell and Goodyear. Buckaroo Banzai was studio financed, so we had more resources. I had a bigger crew for Buckaroo. I had my assistant cameraman Louis Niemeyer and my key grip Jack Johnson. Ron Veto was with me. Jim Arnett was the stunt coordinator for Buckaroo, but he directed those second unit jet car scenes. Jim and I did six stunt movies together, so we had a good relationship.

SM: It sounds like, from Ron, that you were able to P.O.V. of the GSAP gun camera mounted in the Spirit of mount more cameras on the Banzai Jet Car. I guess America's tail. Source: National Archives/Rex Metz streamlining wouldn’t matter… 8

car in hero mode* to get ground level shots (like those shown in Ron’s photographs) and then more runs for the aerial photography? RM: It’s all carefully planned to get the maximum amount of shots, with the minimum amount of runs. We’ll set the cameras and the car will make a run. The car will return to “A.” We’ll move the cameras and the car will make another run. Each run will be covered from multiple angles. SM: What your experience shooting the documentary helpful when you were shooting Buckaroo? RM: Yeah, there were some shots used in the documentary that were repeated in the movie. We watched my Breedlove footage a couple of times when we were planning the Buckaroo shoot. SM: What were the pre-shoot meetings like? What’s the interplay between you, the driver, and the second unit director like? RM: The more you trusted the driver, the more you’d ask him to get closer to you. When you are looking through the eyepiece on the camera, you feel removed from the situation—you don’t have any fear of it. People called me a daredevil, but I didn’t see it that way. You need to be close to the action to make the shot interesting, but there are also plenty of precautions to A tale of two jet cars: The 1964 Spirit of America (Top) vs keep everyone safe. Buckaroo’s Jet Car in 1983 (Bottom). Hollywood money buys prettier pictures. Sources: Top-National Archives/Rex Metz SM: Jordan Cronenweth was still the director of Bottom-MGM/Universal/Rex Metz photography for Buckaroo during the Jet Car shoot. Did you get to work with him? RM: Yeah, we weren’t trying to break a record during the Buckaroo shoot. We were trying to make the best RM: I worked with Jordan a lot. He was a good friend. movie we could. There’s a thing between first and second unit SM: How do you pick the spots to mount the cameras? *In car movies there are usually several versions of the car used in the film modified for different functions: jumping, RM: You get some standard coverage, like the driver’s sliding, crashing, etc. There is always at least one “hero car,” POV, but then you look for shots that nobody else has a pristine version used for close-ups and such. done. You want an identifiable part of the car in front, the surface you are traveling on, and something interesting you are approaching in the distance—basic foreground, middle-ground, and background stuff. You want to give the viewer the illusion that they are riding along as an observer. SM: What about the other shots? It looked like you had some from a chase car or a helicopter following the Jet Car… RM: Yeah, we had a camera car and I was up in a helicopter for some shots.

SM: So how does it work? You do some runs with the cameras mounted to the car. You do some runs with the Rex Metz at El Mirage. Source: Ron Veto 9 cameramen. They need to tell you all of their tricks, so certified divers. We did that and then put out the that the stuff I did matched with what he was doing. We scuttlebutt that we did underwater work, so people had to talk about choices of lenses, filters, etc. We were would talk about it. Later, I was working on The Man working from the same storyboards and we would call Who Would Be King with John Houston. We were doing each other from different locations on the set to keep everything straight. Later, we would see each other’s dailies and then talk about them. It was a real collaborative effort. SM: Any other stories from the Jet Car shoot that you’d like to share? RM: Buckaroo’s Jet Car was a prop. It contained a real jet engine that provided thrust, but it wasn’t jet propelled. It was predominantly powered by a big Ford V-8 engine. We shot a lot of stuff under sped, so it would appear to be going a lot faster than it actually was. We had a great time making it look as real as we possibly could.

JAWS underwater with Rex Metz (Left) and his assistant, Jan Kiesser (Right Foreground). Source: Rex Metz a whitewater sequence in the Grand Canyon when I got a phone call from Joe Alves, the production designer on . He told me that the guy they had hired for the underwater stuff told them that you couldn’t shoot underwater at night. Joe wanted to know if that was true. I told him, “No, it’s just like shooting on a soundstage through smoke. Water is just another medium. You can shoot underwater at night all you want.” Then he said “ wants to talk to you.” I said, “I’m having dinner with John Huston right now”—dropping names, of course… SM: Well, Huston would have been a lot bigger than Spielberg back then. RM: Big time! So, I said I’d call him back. I told Huston about it and he said, “Oh, that’s really cool!” After dinner I did a quick review of the underwater section of my American Society of Cinematographers Manual and called Spielberg. Joe Alves, Spielberg, and I talked about the night sequence in JAWS. I told them that you could use underwater spotlights as a light source and then put milk in the water. Milk would do the same thing in water Source: Rex Metz that smoke does on a soundstage. You could create shafts of light or whatever you want. If you look at the movie, SM: Let’s back up a bit in your career now, how did you you’ll see the scene where they find Ben Gardner’s boat— get the gig on JAWS? all of the stuff in that sequence came from our first RM: I had heard about JAWS being made at Universal phone conversation. and I decided that I wanted to work on it. I told my SM: We’ve talked about land and sea, now let’s talk assistant cameraman at the time, Jan Kiesser, that we about air. Got any cool aerial photography stories? were going to learn how to SCUBA dive and become 10

RM: While working on the television show, Baa Baa SM: [Interrupting] Wait! Let me repeat what I just Black Sheep, I was in the back seat of a T-28 trainer. We heard. You crashed into the side of a mountain, packed were shooting a dog fight. We had just gone inverted up your gear, and hiked down—in Africa! And that’s all when the engine died. The pilot, Jim Gavin, said, “Okay, in a day’s work? we gotta bail out. We lost the engine and we’re gonna RM: We had a contract. SM: Rex, that’s a pretty cool job! RM: I was a jock kinda-guy. I drove fast cars and motorcycles. I learned to SCUBA dive and enjoyed the flying. That’s why I gravitated to the second unit stuff. We were shooting stuntmen crashing cars while the first unit crew was filming actors talking to each other. I worked on the second unit of thirty movies with Mickey Moore,** who was probably the greatest action director of all time. We had an amazing run. SM: Any advice for someone who wants to get into the business?

th Eye in the sky: Rex Metz gets a shot of the Jet Car post-8 RM: Well, I never said, “No.” I always said, “Yeah, I can dimension from his perch in the Chase 1 helicopter. Source: do that.” I enjoyed learning new skills and applying them Rex Metz to cinematography. Something else that’s important is crash.” I said, “I can’t jump out. I’ll hit the tail and hurt that there are many ways to get the shot you need. It myself! You need to re-start it and land.” sounds cliché, but I used smoke and mirrors a lot. When shooting the big action stuff, it’s often safer to shoot into SM: [Laughter] a mirror. Mirrors were an essential part of my grip equipment; with them I could use illusion to trick the RM: He got it re-started and we landed. The mechanics worked on the plane during lunch. We went back up and audience into thinking they were seeing something that during the same maneuver, the engine quit again. This they weren’t. time there was no discussion about parachuting out. He SM: Any last observations on your career as a whole? just re-started it. RM: The “jock thing” opened a lot of doors for me with SM: Ho hum. [Laughter] the high end first unit cinematographers like Jordan, Bill RM: The first time was exciting in the moment. The Fraker, and Connie Hall. I had an opportunity to work second time was a little more routine. with some of the absolute masters of the craft. I could figure out a way to get the shots they needed and match SM: You specialized in shooting from helicopters… their look while doing it. But, the very best part of it was that I got to spend my entire career doing what I loved. RM: I spent around thirty-five years flying with a pilot named John Sarviss. He was great, the equipment was SM: Rex, thank you very much for your time. The staff at great, the support crews were great, but people don’t World Watch One is thrilled that you were able to bring want to hear the stories about when everything went your unique experiences to the making of The great. Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai. SM: Okay, I’ll bite—do you have a helicopter story when For more about Rex’s work, see his IMDB page, his things didn’t go great? Instagram page, and his interview for the American Society of Cinematographer’s magazine. RM: We were under contract to Porsche to do a documentary on the East African Safari Off-Road Rally **Chances are that your favorite scene from any of the Indiana in Kenya. The helicopter had an engine failure and we Jones movies was actually directed by Mickey Moore—as well did an autorotation landing into the side of a mountain. as your favorite scenes from The War of the Worlds, The Ten We packed up the camera and stuff and hiked down off Commandments, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the mountain. We found a river and hitchhiked back into Ghostbusters II, and many others. Mickey Moore’s book My Nairobi… Magic Carpet of Films is available at Amazon.

11

More Jet Car Shoot BTS By WWO Staff On December 31st, 2020, James Belohovek posted these behind-the-scenes (BTS) photos of the Jet Car shoot on the Crew Stories Facebook page. James shared that he worked on some of the effects for Buckaroo Banzai at Peter Kuran’s special effects shop, VCE Inc. WWO staff reached out to James who explained that he didn’t take the photos, they were provided to him as reference by the production. This was in case VCE Inc. needed to build a miniature Jet Car to complete their effects shots. VCE Inc.’s assignment was to build and shoot a miniature set for the scene where the Jet Car exits the mountain from the 8th Dimension. Belohovek’s specific job was to build the miniature mountain.

Free Jet Car Rides? A line forms behind the Jet Car at El He’s gone through it! He’s gone through the mountain! Mirage OHV area (Above) for reasons that aren’t entirely The Jet Car coasts to a halt, trailing smoke during its post-8th clear from the photo. With a mountain behind the vehicle and dimension portion of the shoot from El Mirage. You can see the hood covered in gunk, it is possible that a smoke effect is the black-clad figure of Buckaroo rolling away from the Jet Car being set up for the shots after Buckaroo’s trip through the and to the right in the second photo (Above Middle) in this mountain. Rexford Metz and Jim Arnett are the first two sequence. Source for all photos above: James Belohovek. people in line to the left of the Jet Car. 12

In a separate Crew Stories post, Belohovek recalls that Kuran was having trouble matching the miniature to film of the actual desert floor. The set had been struck weeks before, so James put everything back together at the last minute. He placed the mountain he had built on two 2x8 foot work tables. Then he and Steve Burg applied a gooey plaster across the surface of the tables. Then Burg built the background mountains and painted the miniature desert floor. Rick Taylor animated the oscillation overthruster’s blue laser and he also lit and shot the miniature mountain sequence. Warm up lap: Various shots of the Jet Car, pre-8th dimension, appear above. You can see a tool box in the bottom left corner of the Top Right Photo, possibly used for one of the Jet Car’s minor break-downs on set. Radford Polinsky, Buckaroo Banzai's costumer and friend of World Watch One, inspects the Jet Car (Bottom Right). Note the 88 symbol is on the left rear quarter panel instead of its familiar position on the left door. Mt. Mini (Left), as seen in the film. Sources: James Belohovek/MGM

The WWO staff thank the crew at VCE Inc. for their work on Buckaroo Banzai and especially to James Belohovek for preserving and sharing these Jet Car photos so many years later. 13

Project Sawtooth: Masado Banzai’s Jet Car By Tim Monro Big Shoulders put out a call to the Tri-State Area and beyond asking for Jet Car articles for a special issue of World Watch One. I reminded BS about a piece I wrote for the September 2018 issue of WWO regarding Overthrusters. The article included a tidbit about Masado Banzai’s ‘50s era Jet Car being built from a cannibalized British jet fighter. BS, who is an expert motivator of his staff, told me that he got zero feedback about that article and didn’t think anybody read it. He then, generously, assigned me the task of expanding the tidbit. Be careful what you wish for, BS… I remember reading something in one of the moldy old issues of WWO about all the different versions of Masado Banzai’s co-pilot for the ‘50s Jet Car. (I’d give whoever wrote the article credit, but my back issues are still in my step-dad’s basement.) In the screenplay, the co-pilot is “Sir Alan Motley of Cambridge, a brainy, affable limey.” In the director’s workprint he is, “Sir Godwin-Lloyd Jones of Cambridge, a brainiac of a limey.” From the DVD, he’s not so smart as the first two, but he is, “The fastest man alive, British race car driver, George Campbell.” The workprint goes on to say that Lloyd-Jones was, “…co-developer with Whitehead and Lord Russell of the world's most advanced theoretical gravity catapult.” Nothing on Google about “Lloyd-Jones”, but “Whitehead and Russell” were real dudes. Alfred North Whitehead and Bertrand Russell co-wrote Principia Mathmatica, The 1954 Jet Car. Credit: Stephen Dane which, I guess, is Latin for “Mathematical Principles.” I don’t have any idea what a “theoretical gravity catapult” is, but those guys sound smart enough to build one. I got zip for “Sir Alan Motley.” Things get more interesting with the name “George Campbell.” Sir Malcolm Campbell was British and was the fastest man alive. He set several land and water speed records. Unfortunately, he died in 1948, so he couldn’t be the co-pilot of the ‘50s Jet car. He did have a son, though—. Donald Campbell set his own speed records would have been in his early 30s during the ‘50s Jet Car era. In 1964, Donald, driving his Bluebird CN7, broke Craig Breedlove’s Spirit of America* land speed record (LSR) of 407.4 mph with a top speed of 403.1 mph. Now I hear

*Editor’s Note: For more information on Craig Breedlove and the Spirit of America, read the interview with Rexford Metz on pages 5-8 of this issue. Donald Campbell: LSR by technicality. Source: Wikipedia 14 slower than 407 mph and think, “How could Campbell until a few months after WWII ended. It was designed to break Breedlove’s record with a slower speed?!” Well, the be mass produced during wartime, so it was built from Federation Internationale de L’Automobile, whoever “non-strategic” materials like wood. It was the front line they are, initially said that because the Spirit of America British fighter until the early ‘50s. Later, a more modern only had three wheels, it wasn’t really a car, but later two-seat version was used as a trainer by the Royal Air they changed their minds. ¿Comprende? So, for a brief Force until the mid-60s. It was probably one of these shining moment, Donald Campbell was the fastest man DH115 trainers that the prop crew got their hands on. alive with a slower top speed. Here’s a video of a Vampire two-seater. The nosecone and the cockpit look like the ‘50s Jet Car to me. Now I hear my editor, BS, saying, “Tim what does all of this have to do with Buckaroo Banzai??” Nothing, BS! It Now I hear you saying, “Tim, so what? Big deal! That has nothing to do with Buckaroo Banzai, but it is about info is mildly interesting, but hardly practical.” It’s jet cars and it was your idea to do a special jet car issue practical if you’re a true fan who knows how to turn a of World Watch One!** But enough of that— If you feel wrench. You can actually buy a real de Havilland like it, you can watch a video for the song “Out of This Vampire pretty cheap and build your own version of World” by the band Marillion. It’s about the death of Masado Banzai’s Jet Car. All I ask is, if you do build one, Donald Campbell. If you do choose to watch it, please send photos to Big Shoulders so I can prove that remember this—I’m not crying, YOU’RE crying. someone read this article! Okay, seems legit that Rauch based “George” Campbell on an amalgam of Malcolm and Donald Campbell. This character was probably the actual pilot/driver of the ‘50s Jet Car and Masado was the equivalent of a modern Weapons Systems Officer (WSO) with the gig of operating the clunky ‘50s Overthuster. When Mac spins his yarn in different ways I cling to the Buckaroo Banzai novel as canon. In the novel, the ‘50s Jet Car had a cockpit that, “…might accommodate a crew of two…,” but no co-pilot is mentioned. There are also two unidentified “Caucasian men” present at the test.

Maybe one of them is the co-pilot, but who’s the other 1950s Jet Car side view illustration by Art Director Stephen dude? In 2009, Mac wrote his most recent version of the Dane. Source: MGM/Universal/Banzai Institute ’50 Jet Car test. In Moonstone’s comic book Buckaroo Banzai: A Tomb with a View, Masado Banzai had no co- pilot and the two Caucasian men at the test were identified as physicists Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr. So, now the definitive novel and most current comic book versions kinda correlate and all my “George Campbell” Googling was an M’F’ing waste of time. Anyway, back to the cannibalized British jet fighter. When I was writing the Overthuster article (that nobody read) I remembered reading something about how the Buckaroo Banzai prop guys had built the ‘50s Jet Car out of an old British fighter and they were flabbergasted to discover that the fighter was built out of wood. I wish I wasn’t a lazy ass and included a footnote to the original source back then, because I can’t remember where I read it now. After searching “wooden jet fighters” I came up with the de Havilland Vampire. The Vampire began development in 1941, but didn’t become operational

**Editor’s Note: Steve Mattsson was the primary instigator of Final check: Dr. Sandra Banzai runs down a systems jet car-themed content. Prior to that, the theme of the issue checklist with husband Dr. Masado Banzai as driver George was centered around articles about the making of Blu-ray and Campbell continues his own preparations for the ill-fated test. DVD extras, which shares the spotlight later in this issue. Source: MGM/Universal/Banzai Institute. 15

A Brief History of Speed and the Evolution of the Jet Car By Dan Berger

Humans have a history of trying to make things on wheels go really, really fast. Sometimes this impulse is practical. Developing the power, efficiency, and reliability of various motor and engine technologies requires the tracking of data to measure and refine performance. With multiple technologies being developed, natural progression leans towards a less practical but equally necessary impulse of rivalry and one-upmanship. It is no surprise, then, that land speed records quickly became tethered to both impulses. The Banzai Institute Jet Car (designation HB-88) was primarily built to serve the technical demands of the Oscillation Overthruster. In doing so, HB-88 and its predecessor, Project Sawtooth, became entangled in the larger engineering escalation of land speed records and the vehicles propelling them to ever more rarified velocities. The Banzai Institute gravity catapults of the 50s and 80s are part of an evolutionary line of vehicles, visionaries, and a grand tradition of novel technological applications, often adopted based on price-point. Credit: Dan Berger The following is a not-very-exhaustive look at some of had long since asserted their dominance in the search for the human and technological predecessors of the a land-speed record. vehicles that paved the way for Professor Toichi Hikita, and various members of the Banzai family, to create a Get Your Motor Running viable Jet Car. Electric motors were a relatively recent innovation All Aboard! compared to steam engines in the late-19th century. Where steam could trace its back to antiquity, the We tend to think of sleek, jet propelled predators of the first experimentation leading up to the electric motor salt flats when it comes to land speed records. The first only dated back to the mid-18th century with Scottish Kings of the Track, however, were literally that— Benedictine monk Andrew Gordon’s invention of the locomotives. With steam as the dominant technology, electrical whirl and electric chimes described in Versuch locomotives became the first vehicles to adopt and einer Erklärung der Electricität (Translation: Attempt improve upon engine technologies. Starting with the to Explain Electricity), published in 1745. It wouldn’t be aeolipile described by Marcus Vitruvius Pollio in his De until nearly ninety years later that English physicist architectura, libri decem (circa 7-15 BCE), steam William Sturgeon built the first modern electric motor in engines progressed beyond their initial use driving water 1832, followed by Vermont blacksmith Thomas th pumps to drain inundated mines in the late 17 century, Davenport’s battery-operated motor used to power a a th to powering rail travel in the early 19 century. The first car in 1834. speed record was set by Richard Trevithick’s unnamed steam locomotive, which huffed to life on the Penydarren The batteries of the 1830s were one-shot affairs with Ironworks tramway in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales on very limited lifespans, unsuitable for the energy February, 21 1804. The top speed, nearly 5mph, left demands of faster or longer distance travel. This plenty of room for others to redefine the upper limits of limitation was finally overcome by French physicist land travel velocity. Gaston Planté’s rechargeable lead-acid battery in 1859, a key technological development allowing the motor to go Steam maintained its primacy in locomotive propulsion mobile in practical terms. through the 1940s, topping off at 126 mph with the UK’s LNER 4468 Mallard in 1938, but by then other By the late-19th century, motorized road-vehicles were technologies powering smaller, more nimble land crafts ready to join the quest for speed, beginning with French 16

innovation with his flash boiler design, but it was a short-lived arriving on the cusp of a new technology that would dominate engine manufacturing for generations to come. Like the electric motor, the roots of the internal combustion engine were recent compared to those of steam, starting with the invention of the gas turbine by English inventor John Barber in 1791. From there, a varied list of scientists and engineers contributed to the evolution leading to the two-stroke gasoline engine developed by German automotive engineer Karl Benz in 1879. This led to the rise of the Benz & Companie Rheinische Gasmotoren-Fabrik and the Benz Patent- Motorwagen, the world’s first commercially available automobile, in 1888.* Fossil fuels were a game-changer in the quest for speed. Inexpensive, abundant, and possessing tremendous energy potential by weight, petrol could do things that electricity and steam only aspired to achieve in terms of Le Comte Gaston de Chasseloup-Laubat. With a mustache delivering maximum power for minimum additional like that, a speed record was inevitable. Source: Unknown mass. The internal combustion engine set the standard aristocrat and race car driver Gaston de Chasseloup- for fastest automobiles on land for decades to come, Laubat’s winning of La France Automobile magazine’s starting with noted American heir, philanthropist, fastest car competition on December 18, 1898. De businessman, and horsebreeder William Kissam Chasseloup-Laubat coaxed his Jeantaud electric Vanderbilt’s record-setting 76.03 mph run at Ablis, automobile to a record-setting 39.24 mph, still a long France in a Mors Z Paris-Vienne on August 5, 1902. By way off from the 82 mph speed record set by Bristol and 1903, automobiles topped steam trains as the fastest Exeter Railway 4-2-4T locomotives in 1854. The records things on wheels. By 1926, they had nearly doubled the for electric automobiles escalated quickly, from just upper range for steam locomotives. The Modern Age of short of 40 mph in 1898 to over 65 mph in 1899, land speed records had begun. dominated by de Chasseloup-Laubat and Belgian race Look, Up in the Sky! car driver Camille Jenatzy. Running in close parallel with the ascent of the internal With most of the records being set in France, often by combustion engine was the race to create a piloted French drivers, it is only natural that the premiere arbiter of automobile land speed records would fall under the auspices of a French institution. So it was that, *It is noteworthy that Karl’s wife, Bertha Benz, made in 1902, the Automobile Club de France (ACF) declared significant contributions to automotive invention of her own. itself the official keeper of land speed records, an On August 5, 1888, unbeknownst to her husband and without authority that became the provenance of the Fédération permission from legal authorities, Bertha made the world’s first cross-country automobile journey with the Benz children, Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA) in 1904, sort of. Richard and Eugen, to visit her mother in Pforzheim, Automobile clubs popped up around the world, and none Germany. Bertha’s larger designs behind the journey were to of them would necessarily recognize the standards for raise awareness of the Benz Patent-Motorwagen by record keeping devised by others until the FIA generating publicity and to demonstrate the vehicle’s utility to standardized the rules in 1924. the general public. Several technical issues developed along the journey, including the failure of the vehicle’s wooden Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Engines! brakes. Bertha addressed the problem by visiting a cobbler Steam managed to grab one automobile land speed and installing leather linings on the contact points, thus inventing the world’s first set of automotive brake pads. She record from the electric vehicles dominating the field on also recommended the addition of a third gear to the Benz April 13, 1902 with the Gardner-Serpollet Œuf de Pâques Patent-Motorwagen for driving up inclines after her children (or Easter Egg in English), driven by French engineer were repeatedly forced to get out and push the vehicle uphill and co-owner of the company, Léon Serpollet. Topping along their journey. The Bertha Benz Memorial Route the record with an impressive 75.06mph, Serpollet following her travels was established in 2008 to memorialize proved that there was still room for steam engine this momentous occasion. 17 heavier-than-air aircraft. It is apropos that, four weeks before Henry Ford tied the then current land speed record of 84.73 mph (in New Baltimore, Michigan on January 12, 1904), brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright became “First in Flight” above the sands of Kitty Hawk, North Carolina on December 17, 1903…both vehicles powered by internal combustion engines. Unpiloted heavier-than-air flight had been around since the Chinese introduction of the rocket-propelled fire arrow to Song dynasty warfare in the 10th century. By the beginning of the 20th century, the works of Jules Verne and H. G. Wells redirected military applications of the technology in a more aspirational avenue, towards the unexplored reaches of space. In addition to Ford and the Wright brothers, Konstantin Tsiolkovsky was making waves of his own with his book, The Exploration of Cosmic Space by Means of Reaction Devices. Inspired “Rocket Fritz” von mugs for the cameras during the by the fiction of Verne and the Russian cosmism demonstration of his Opel RAK.2 rocket car in 1928. Source: movement, Tsiolkovsky mapped out the first serious silodrome.com theoretical explorations of the forces necessary to thwart impressive by record-setting standards, but the stunt did gravity and send machines into space. The book’s two the trick. Opel-RAK.1 became the first rocket propelled most important contributions were the application of an car in history, and people took notice. equation defining the propulsive forces necessary for space travel (named the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation in The next rocket car, Opel-RAK.2, benefitted from the his honor), and advocating for the use of liquid hydrogen initial test of Opel-RAK.1 and didn’t hold anything back. and oxygen as a propellent. This rocket car was one of the first to employ inverted wings to produce downforces for additional stability, and While the most remembered contributions to rocketry it was driven by none other than himself. aimed heavenwards, three men directed their efforts Von Opel also made sure to have a motion picture towards a more terrestrial application, with Fritz von camera crew in attendance to capture the event for Opel at the epicenter of the affair. Von Opel was the posterity. The twenty-four rockets powering the vehicle grandson of , founder of the Opel automobile roared to life on May 23, 1928, propelling von Opel to an manufacturing company. After receiving his doctorate impressive 143 mph and earning him the moniker from Technische Universität Darmstadt, von Opel was “Rocket Fritz” ever afterwards. Opel-RAK.2 wasn’t as hired into the family business as Director of Testing and fast as the more conventional Sunbeam 1000 also put in charge of publicity. With rocketry capturing HP Mystery behind the current speed record of the public imagination through books such as The 203.79mph set in 1927, but it didn’t matter. Rockets Advance into Space by Austrian freelance science writer meant “the future,” Fritz was more than fast enough, and Max Valier, von Opel became intrigued with the idea of the stunt put Opel into the minds of potential car buyers. using rocket propelled vehicles for publicity stunts. Von Von Opel’s feat of technological theatre was a success. Opel approached Valier for advice on a rocket vehicle program. Valier, in turn, approached German Two more wheeled vehicles appeared in the program, pyrotechnics engineer and manufacturer Friedrich Opel-RAK.3 and the inexplicably Romanized Opel- Wilhelm Sander about supplying rockets for various RAK.IV. Both vehicles were designed to ride on rails vehicles. rather than roads. Opel-RAK.3 zoomed to a speed quoted variously as either 158 or 180 mph on its first run The resulting series of five vehicles were a combination before jumping the tracks and crashing on its second of rocketry experimentation, publicity grandstanding, attempt. Opel-RAK.IV failed spectacularly when one of and daring-do called Opel-RAK. The first to the solid rockets fell on the track and detonated the rest, roll into the spotlight was a rocket car with the prompting Railway authorities to forbid further tests. uninspired moniker Opel-RAK.1, driven by German race driver and regular Opel test driver Kurt C. Volkhart. On A rocket-powered Opel-RAK.1 aircraft, piloted von Opel, March 15, 1928, Volkhart stepped into the car and followed on September 30, 1929—the first vehicle of its became the first man to ride a controlled explosion in a kind and a fitting end to an Opel-RAK program filled wheeled vehicle, to the tune of 47 mph. Not very with rocketry firsts. As the years passed, Rocket Fritz 18 and his contributions to rocketry faded into the hand, it is clear that the gravity catapult of choice would footnotes of history, but they made a lasting impression travel on a rail to provide maximum control over the on one person in particular—a brilliant Italian teenager vector of travel. The demise of von Opel’s rocket rail car with a passion for fast cars and physics named Emilio must have left an impression on Lizardo, as would the Lizardo. confines of the Princeton lab housing the experiment and the carbon monoxide making an internal Hitting Their Heads Against the Wall combustion engine unsuitable for propulsion. This The 1930s were not kind to Quantum Theory. The field naturally led to the adoption of an electric motor to had burst onto the physics scene in 1900 with the power the vehicle hurling Lizardo half way through a introduction of the discipline’s basic ideas according to wall and into the clutches of Lord John Whorfin. Sadly, German theoretical physicist Max Planck, who won a the docudrama The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Nobel Prize for Physics in 1918 for his ongoing work. By Across the Eighth Dimension does not provide an 1938, Quantum Field Theory was mired in a decades- explanation behind the failure, implying instead that at long quagmire of erroneous theoretical formulations least part of the blame fell to Lizardo’s exuberance in producing infinite energies. rushing into an only partially-ready experiment. However, future events seem to point to at least one other culprit—a major deficit in velocity. Jet Setting Velocity was still on the minds of land speed enthusiasts in the 1930s and aviation, in its own way, was at the center of the action. Ernest Eldridge’s July 12, 1924 record of 145.89 mph set the tone of the next several decades as he drove his Fiat Mephistopheles into the history books with a Fiat A.12 airplane engine under the hood. By the end of 1935, the record had changed hands sixteen times and broken the 300 mph barrier, all with airplane engines as the key component to success. These were engines of the internal combustion variety, but a new option was about to present itself. 1935 also heralded the appearance of the Heinkel He 178 turbo jet airplane, the first of its kind and, like internal combustion technology, owing a debt to John Barber’s 18th century work with gas turbines. Jet technology mostly remained experimental throughout the 1940s, thus keeping jets out of World War II in any meaningful way. It wouldn’t be until the allies captured the more technologically advanced but metallurgically primitive German jet technology that jet engines finally began their rapid progression as a dominant aerospace technology in the 1950s. Max Planck, father of Quantum Theory, also sported a bitchin’ mustache. Source: University of Oregon So rapid was the development of jet technology that, by 1954, the vintage 1941 British de Havilland Vampire Onto this field of play stepped Japanese particle fighter jet Tim Boo Ba mentions earlier in this issue was physicist Dr. Toichi Hikita and Milanese gauge theorist already lurking in the obsolescence Nirvana of military Dr. Emilio Lizardo. The details of their tragic Princeton surplus.** Both the Vampire and its engine, the equally experiment in the Fall of 1938 need no introduction dated de Havilland Goblin turbo jet, would have here, but it is worth noting how and why the presented a real bargain for Toichi Hikita and Masado developments in technology already discussed in this Banzai’s Overthruster experiment, along with a much article manifested on the day Dr. Lizardo sent himself needed upgrade in speed. Readers are already familiar hurtling at a wall and into history’s ledger of failures. with the tragic results of that 1954 Oscillation Given the controlled nature of the experiment and the Editor’s Note: You should totally read Tim’s article, “Project limitations of both the facilities and technologies at Sawtooth,” on pages 11-12. For all of our sakes. 19

Change was once again in the air. Almost overnight, cars powered by jets became the reigning technology in the quest for speed. By the time of HB-88’s famous trip through the mountain, the new upper limit had been set by American driver racing to a colossal 630.478 mph in his Blue Flame on October 23, 1970. Eleven years later, HB-88 would break the sound barrier of 767.29 mph on June 11, 1981 in pursuit of a very different volume of the history books, and using the same ethos as Breedlove’s pragmatic and homespun engineering practices. Sadly, being a one way trip, Buckaroo’s historic ride would not pass muster with the FIA. In order to qualify, a vehicle must make two runs, in opposite directions through a “measured mile,” to cancel out the effects of headwinds and tailwinds on a car’s performance. Almost forty years have passed since Buckaroo and Team

A formation of de Haviland Vampires soars above the Banzai’s fateful trip through the mountain. The current sands of Egypt in 1952, just two years before the Banzai LSR record holder, British RAF Pilot Andy Green, has family tragedy of the 1954 Jet Car test. Source: The not seen his record of 760.343 mph touched since he collections of the Imperial War Museums drove the ThrustSSC to that dizzying pinnacle on October 15, 1997, but plans have been in the works since Overthruster test, so we will not dwell upon it here, but it 2008 to unleash an even more astonishing Bloodhound is safe to say that the homespun nature of the 1954 jet LSR capable of topping out at 1000 mph. The car most likely grew out of budgetary limitations Bloodhound has yet to make good on that lofty promise, imposed on a very niche instance of scientific inquiry. but with testing of the vehicle well under way, it’s safe to Both speed and price-point were definitely a concern for say that the evolution of the jet car is far from over, and Craig Breedlove and his land speed aspirations. likely to continue for many years to come. Breedlove entered the land speed chase in the early 1960s, more or less as a California fireman with a dream of being the fastest man on Earth, in whatever vehicle he could afford on his own dime. He initially planned on using a large internal combustion airplane engine like other record holders before him, but soon discovered that demand was high, driving the prices well beyond his budget. It turned out that surplus jet engines were significantly less expensive, and potentially much faster with the right chassis design.

One General Electric J47 turbojet and a couple of years of expert engineering and testing advice later, Breedlove made a first unsuccessful record attempt in 1962. One year and some redesigning after that, Breedlove nearly took his now updated Spirit of America into the record books, except for a technicality, when his August 5, 1963 trials on Utah’s Bonneville Salt Flats clocked a head- spinning 407.447 mph. Sadly, the vehicle’s radical three- wheel design did not conform to the FIA’s four-wheeled specifications. Neither did Spirit’s non-wheel steering design, thus placing the vehicle temporarily in a class of its own. The oversight was corrected when the Spirit of America’s design was later ratified by the FIM and the Keeping the Flame alive: Looking very much like a cousin of the Spirit of America (Top), The Blue Flame (Bottom) was the record confirmed, technically making Breedlove’s “jet sole contributor to the 1970’s LSR successes. Sources: Top- car” the fastest motorcycle in history. National Archives, Bottom: Wikipedia 20

Skirmish on the Salt Flats: Jet Car Special Insert By Dan Berger

It’s August 6, 1963. Warm summer winds ruffle the hair of a fourteen year old boy pouring over a newspaper headline for the third time that morning, soaking in the news as he reads about the most amazing thing to happen since John Glenn sailed around the earth the year before. Craig Breedlove has done it. After almost sixteen years, John Cobb’s September 16, 1947 record of 394.196 mph has fallen to a jet car that looks like something out of a Flash Gordon serial. Craig Breedlove has set a new land speed record of 407.447 mph on August 5, 1963. Source: FIA Technically, Breedlove’s record isn’t official. Land Speed Records (LSR) are certified by the Fédération required second run to validate an LSR attempt. The Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). With only three vehicle zoomed to an impressive 420.07 mph and, when wheels and a highly unusual steering system, Breedlove’s averaged with the 406 mph first run, received an official Spirit of America doesn’t exactly conform to the stodgy 413.199 mph speed record at Bonneville. But it was old organization’s definition of a “car.” It doesn’t matter about to have company. to the boy. As far as he’s concerned, Breedlove is the fastest man alive, and drives the coolest car ever built.

The very next day, Art Arfons arrived on the Bonneville Salt Flats with his jet car in tow, dubbed the Green

Monster in keeping with the long line of more The boy couldn’t know it yet but the Jet Car Era was conventional dragsters preceding it. Fitted with the same dawning, and a contest to determine the next stages of classified General Electric J79 jet engine used to power the LSR along with it. A drama was about to unfold on Lockheed F-104 Starfighters, Arfons took his Monster the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah spanning several years, through its paces for two days until he was comfortable ushering in a unique chapter in the history of enough to make an LSR attempt. Walt was arriving back motorsports. in Ohio with his team on October 5 when the news came that brother Art had already smashed his record, a mere Legions of young men and women weren’t the only ones three days after setting it, by taking the Green Monster keeping an eye on Breedlove’s adventures in the Spirit of to a record 434.022 mph without the afterburners. Two America. Art and were a pair of days later, on October 7, Art Arfons was back on the flats mechanically inclined brothers living in rural Ohio near attempting to break the 500 mph barrier when his right Akron. Both men grew up teaching themselves how to rear tire exploded, damaging the vehicle. Arfons turn whatever junk they could find into dragsters. Their returned home from Utah in a mixture of triumph and collective efforts were good enough to win races, and defeat with a new record and a car in need of repair, prize money, resulting in a series of vehicles called the ready to plot his next move. Green Monster. The words “Green Monster” would loom large among fans of the LSR in the years to follow. Art and Walt eventually had a falling out and decided to each independently design their own vehicles in pursuit of the LSR. Walt joined forces with engineer and driver Meanwhile, Craig Breedlove was ready to reclaim the Tom Green, secured sponsorship from Goodyear (who title of “Fastest Man Alive”—FIA rules be damned—in also happened the be sponsoring Craig Breedlove at the the Spirit of America. His old reliable General Electric time), and set to building their jet powered Wingfoot J47 jet engine was no match for Arfons’ J79, but the Express. On October 2, 1964, with daylight failing and aerodynamics of Breedlove’s vehicle were far superior to no time to refuel, Green took the Wingfoot on its those of the Green Monster. Aiming for 500 mph and 21 chomping at the bit to get there, Breedlove spent two Art Arfons, not content to play second fiddle to anyone, days of trials at Bonneville before taking the Spirit up to patched up his Green Monster and carted it fifteen a record-breaking run of 468.719 mph on October 13, hundred miles back out to Bonneville as rains threatened just a hair over a week after Arfons’ record-setter. Two to make the salt flats undrivable. Fortunately for him, days later, he was ready to break the 500 mph mark, but the weather and his luck held out long enough to make it wasn’t the only thing he was destined to break that the final statement in the record books for 1964 as he day. edged the Monster past Breedlove’s twelve-day-old record to a rarified 536.710 mph on October 27. Breedlove heard the news as he gave a press conference about his own record from October 15. With both the Spirit of America and his record in ruins, it was time to start making plans for next year. On October 15, 1964, Breedlove drove the Spirit of America up to a stellar 513 mph for his first run through the measured mile. Less than an hour later, the car was ready for its return run. The vehicle entered its return trip through the measured mile at 500 mph when something in the suspension broke. Breedlove did his It’s the middle of October, 1965. The boy is now sixteen best to maintain control and keep the pedal down to and dividing his time between homework, chores, and a finish the run, but immediately afterwards both of his 1955 Ford Thunderbird in desperate need of attention. parachutes failed. Unable to employ the breaks at speeds With his academics well in hand, the boy washes the over 150 mph, Breedlove careened off the course and supper dishes and steals out to the garage to see if he can continued for five miles at breakneck speed before coax new life into the comatose vehicle. It seemed like a hitting a telegraph pole, jumping a levee, and crashing bargain at the time, but wisdom fills him with each new into a drainage ditch. Miraculously, Breedlove was mechanical travesty as he learns, first hand, the unhurt and able to exit the vehicle unassisted, saying, difference between how things appear and how they are. “And now for my next trick, I’ll light myself on fire.” His ears perk up as the radio announcer mentions This wasn’t the only trick he pulled off that day. Bonneville. The rivalry between Breedlove, Arfons, and Breedlove had managed to hold it together long enough Arfons is heating up once again. After the excitement of to drive the record up to a stunning 526.277 mph, the 1964’s LSR madhouse, how much more insane could fourth time the record had been broken in two weeks. It things become this year? was not to be the last. Walt Arfons was, by far, the challenger with the craziest plan in 1965. Taking a page from Fritz von Opel’s rocket cars of the 1920s, Walt radically redesigned the 2 for the new season, with solid rockets providing thrust for the vehicle. The car was built heavier with the expectation that the rockets might take it supersonic, but the weight was a drag on the vehicle’s acceleration. On October 19, 1965, after a disappointing test run, Arfons added ten more rockets to the car and sent driver Bobbie Tatroe out for another go at the record. Suddenly, some of the explosive caps used to cut loose the rockets in case of emergency detonated, damaging the car and ending the vehicle’s run. Tatroe was not seriously hurt, but Team Wingfoot was officially out of the race.

“And now for my next trick…” Craig Breedlove (L) laughs Breedlove, now free to completely redesign Spirit of off a brush with death after the October 15, 1964 crash America, made some much needed changes as well. His capping his 526 mph record. Source: National Archives Spirit of America Sonic 1 replaced the original’s three 22 wheel configuration with an FIA compliant four wheel speed of 576.553 mph between the two runs, taking the design and conventional steering. The crash of 1964 did record back only five days after it had been set. not go unaddressed. A much improved braking system Breedlove received the news shortly before his was added to the car, as was a J79 jet engine upgrade to appearance on the Ed Sullivan Show. It’s a fair bet that match the Green Monster’s. he was not very happy to hear it. As Team Wingfoot bowed out, Team Sonic 1 revved up at Bonneville. It performed so well with the first use of its afterburner that the nose of the car began to pull away from the ground and essentially fly, negating the new steering system entirely and threatening to send Sonic 1 It was back to Bonneville once again for Breedlove and to the same crash site as its predecessor. Fortunately, the Spirit of America Sonic 1, still possessing a tendency to parachutes held, and the car was adjusted accordingly to want to fly through the air as much as across the salt address the problem. On November 2, 1965, Spirit of flats. With the season headed towards rain, Breedlove America Sonic 1 took to the salt flats once more. It still waited impatiently as the Firestone tire company wanted to inch its nose heavenwards even after the finished its previously booked time on the testing range. modifications, but managed to remain stable enough to Fortunately, worsening weather conditions gave way to leave the previous record in the dust, clocking in at better conditions on November 15, 1965, long enough for 555.485 mph and setting Art Arfons up for his next leg of Breedlove to squeeze in one last go at the record before the competition. the end of the year. What followed was a paradigm- breaking 600.601 mph land speed record that propelled Breedlove into the FIA record books and history books as the first person to surpass the 400, 500, and 600 mph marks in a land vehicle; an amazing accomplishment in its own right. Art Arfons would return the next year to make another attempt at the record, but the resulting crash would nearly kill Arfons and mark an end to the LSR one-upmanship of the 1960s, with Craig Breedlove as the undisputed victor.

It’s Thanksgiving Day, 1965. The enthusiasm of the latest Battle for Bonneville still fills the boy—really more a young man now—with even greater purpose regarding his old, tired Thunderbird, only now it doesn’t sound so tired any more. His mother’s family won’t arrive for

The Man and his Monster: Art Arfons brings the Green another hour, allowing him time to savor a victory of Monster to life in his Ohio garage. Source: Petersen man over machine in happy solitude as the ignition key Automotive Museum turns and the engine roars to life for the first time in years. “What would it take to mount a jet engine to the Arfons was back in Bonneville with the Green Monster back and still be street legal?” he wonders. The thought less than a week after Breedlove’s latest triumph. On scatters as a familiar voice cuts through the sound of the November 7, the day after arriving on the salt flats, engine, calling him back to the house. Company will be Arfons took the Monster on a practice run good enough over soon, and it’s time for Buckaroo to clean up. to set him up for another possible record, and he was of a mind to see it through. Less than an hour later the car The author wishes to acknowledge this article’s debt to an was fired up and raced back the way it had come for its excellent short documentary called The Battle of Bonneville second run when the Green Monster once again suffered created by the fellows at the Scarf and Goggles blog. a tire blow-out, nearly losing both parachutes in the A very special thanks to the Petersen Automotive Museum in process. It was another frustrating moment for Arfons, , CA for taking the time to provide us with some but it was mixed with triumph. Despite the malfunction, amazing photos of the Green Monster. So Cal BBIs should the Green Monster had managed to clock in an average make a point of seeing the Green Monster for themselves. 23

Skirmish on the Salt Flats: LSR Timeline

24

INTERVIEW: Dave Winfield Cut & Fold Designer By Steve Mattsson

Dave Winfield is a graphic artist who designs amazing miniature paper models. These are vehicles that have special significance to him; custom cars that he has seen, movie and TV vehicles, and his favorite toys. He has also created some models that will be of interest to readers of World Watch One. All are simplified one-sheet paper models and all are (mostly) easy to build. They are available for free download at Dave’s Card Creations. Steve Mattsson: Dave, please tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do. Dave Winfield: I’m an ex-Brit and now live in southern Ontario, Canada. I’ve been a graphic artist all my life. I’m From 2D to 3D, through the 8D: You too can build your very an ex-auto mechanic, built hot rods, and was a custom own paper model of the Jet Car, thanks to the ingenuity of painter (airbrusher) for 15 years. I got into model graphic artist Dave Winfield. Source: Dave Winfield building about 20 years ago as a hobby. I am a self DW: When the topic of Buckaroo Banzai came up, I taught digital artist and work mainly in CorelDraw. I remembered seeing the movie years ago and got very eventually started designing my own models to help pay excited...and rushed to the internet to see if I could for the hobby and I sell them in an online store, watch it again. It’s one of the few sci-fi films I don’t www.papermodelshop.com. I started designing small already have a copy of. My mind was mainly flooded with models for myself. It is a personal challenge to create memories of Ellen Barkin, whom I fell in love with after simplified models using as few parts as possible seeing this film. I didn’t remember much else about the (everything must fit onto one letter sheet.) I started film, other than the fact that many well known “stars” sharing these Koolwheelz models because of interest were in it. So watching it again 30+ years later was a from within the modeling community. It turns out they totally new experience. After that, designing the Jet Car also work well as bait to get people to my websites. What and then the Tour Bus was a no brainer. started out as a handful of personal projects, is now about 200 models and accessories and growing every SM: It looks like the Hong Kong Cavaliers’ Tour Bus was day! an easier design for you to create and would be easier for interested Blue Blaze Irregulars to build. Do you SM: How do you choose subjects for your models? I recommend starting with the bus before trying to build would assume that rectilinear designs work better for the Jet Car? paper models… DW: The subject doesn't matter, but since paper will only bend in one direction, I have to design with all angular surfaces (no real curves). And I intentionally over-simplify shapes because of scale and the desired simplicity of a Koolwheelz design. SM: I see that many of the designs in your collection are of vehicles important to nerd culture… DW: Me? Nerd? I grew up on Star Trek and Thunderbirds. I love sci-fi and superhero movies. I’m a big fan of Batman and Superman, although I was never really a comic book reader. SM: Someone on your forum requested that you do the Jet Car from Buckaroo Banzai and you responded that you were a fan of the movie. Tell us what you liked about the film. Get on the bus! World Watch One. Source: Dave Winfield 25

DW: Yes, the Bus is very simple construction and I SM: You sell your more complex military models at always recommend some of my easy Koolwheelz models papermodelshop.com, but how can Buckaroo Banzai to beginners. I don’t think the Jet Car is that fans show their appreciation for your free Jet Car and complicated, but there are definitely a lot more parts and Tour Bus models? assemblies to deal with. ’ Magical Mystery Tour Bus is also a simple build. DW: To help me keep the websites afloat and the free models available, I am happy to accept donations SM: There are some articles in this issue of World through my PayPal account. Watch One about the history of land speed records. Tell us about your Land Speederz collection. SM: I see you use the handle “airdave” online. We would like to initiate you into our ranks as Blue Blaze Irregular DW: I’ve always followed land speed records and was airdave—any objections? interested in the British Bloodhound project back in 2015—so much so that I had to create the model of it. At DW: Nickname from my airbrushing days...sounds the same time, I rediscovered an old Budweiser advert in good! Oscillation Overthruster baby! my memorabilia collection that featured the Bud Rocket Car. Those two models spawned an entire series of land speed record models. SM: Could you walk us through the process from the idea for a new vehicle to the finished model sheet? DW: I don’t use 3D, CAD, or digital modeling software. I design mainly in my mind...I envision a structure, then envision an assembly part, then imagine the unfolded part as a 2D paper thing. Then I create that unfolded part in CorelDraw...using a lot of art skills, math, and measuring. If it passes a test build, I continue with more parts and more assemblies until I create an entire model. I will often start with my own multi-angle “blueprint” of a vehicle to work from. I’ll create it with the finished boxy paper construction in mind, that way I can work out all the dimensions. I usually don’t do the colouring, On the scent of the LSR: In addition to vehicles from film and texturing and artwork until the end, but sometimes it’s television, Winfield has created a series of models for land part of the design process. speed record-holding vehicles, like the Bloodhound SSC above. Source: Dave Winfield

Find Dave’s science fiction vehicle collection, including Buckaroo’s Jet Car and The HKC’s Tour Bus, here. Find Dave’s Land Speed Record Vehicles here. For more information about Malcolm and George Campbell read Tim Monro’s “Project Sawtooth” article in this issue. For more info about Craig Breedlove read Steve Mattsson’s interview with Rex Metz and Dan Berger’s article, “Skirmish on the Slat Flats” in this issue.

Source: Dave Winfield 26

Superman in the Eighth Dimension? By Scott Tate History tells us that Prof. Hikita and Dr. Emilio Lizardo conducted a partial breach of the Eighth Dimension in 1938, and that Buckaroo Banzai fully accomplished the feat more than four decades later. But in between, Superman may also have done so in 1958. In The Adventures of Superman episode “The Mysterious Cube” (S06E04, originally aired February 24, 1958), criminal Paul Barton (Bruce Wendell) has the perfect hiding place within the interior of, well, a mysterious cube–a large, featureless, completely sealed structure with rooms and supplies inside, somewhat like a bomb shelter. Barton has been living comfortably inside the cube for seven years. No one can arrest him or Man of Molecular Density? Superman learns a way to pass even technically prove he’s in there. Not even through solid matter in The Mysterious Cube. Source: Superman’s mighty strength or X-ray vision can Warner Home Video penetrate the cube.† Enough time has passed that Barton’s brother and accomplice Steve (Keith Richards‡) Did Superman step through the Eighth Dimension? If can initiate proceedings to have him declared legally there’s one person who could do so without an dead, thereby sidestepping all pending charges against Oscillation Overthruster, it’s Superman. The result him. He’ll soon be able to exit the cube with impunity. seems similar, and the concept of the empty space between atoms is similar in principle to Buckaroo’s Seeking a solution, Superman (George Reeves) turns to remarks at the press conference after his own incident: his scientist friend Prof. Lucerne Ω (Everett Glass). “See this rock? It’s solid matter, right? But in point of Lucerne had been introduced in the episode from one fact, the solid parts of this rock, the neutrons, quarks, week earlier, “Divide and Conquer,” S06E03), where he protons, and electrons comprise only about one coached Superman on the development of a new power, quadrillionth of its total volume.” the ability to divide himself into two individuals existing On the other hand, it’s possible Superman passed in multiple locations at once. That was accomplished by through some dimension other than the Eighth∞. The focusing “an extraordinary concentration of will power” means were operationally different, and there’s no so that Superman “can expand [his] atomic structure by indication of the story of Superman having encountered driving the molecules farther apart, then separate them.” any other Lectroids or other life forms therein. Of Now Superman turns to Lucerne again to help him course, the true details may have been simplified for penetrate the cube, and the elderly scientist offers televised fictionalization, much as aspects were for The similar advice about how Superman might “rearrange Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai. the molecules of your own body” through “an Despite their effectiveness, neither of Superman’s extraordinary degree of concentration and will.” But in newfound abilities were ever mentioned again. Bits of this case the alteration of molecular density would be dialog suggest that Superman may have turned to Prof. guided towards a different result: “You mean that I Lucerne for further mentorship on other unseen might be able to just pass through a wall?” Superman occasions, but as far as screen time goes viewers never asks. And in short order, he masters the ability. saw him again for the remainder of the series. It just goes to show…I don’t care if you walked through a wall † How such an impressive feat of engineering came to be in Metropolis. When you play my joint, you’re just constructed in the first place is, frustratingly, only briefly and another act. vaguely glossed over. ∞ We don’t actually have a relevant footnote for this item, but ‡ No, not that Keith Richards. did you know that Tim Monro wrote an article in this issue? You didn’t? You should totally double back and read it! See Ω The spelling of the professor’s name is a matter of dispute. “Project Sawtooth” on pages 13-14 of this issue. Some sources, such as IMDb.com, list it as LaSerne. We’ve chosen to go with Lucerne, which is consistent with the Also, we are totally interested in photos from anyone building subtitles on the 2006 Warner Home Video DVD. a replica of the 1954 Jet Car. 27

INTERVIEW: Mike and Denise Okuda Of Quarantines and Counterfactuals By Dan Berger In July of 2020, World Watch One had the good fortune to interview Buckaroo Banzai uberfans Mike and Denise Okuda, of Star Trek art department fame, about their involvement in the attempt to bring a Buckaroo Banzai series to television in 1998. The Okudas were extremely generous with their time and experiences, and the conversation covered a wide range of topics. Of particular interest was a discussion of their work on the alternate history television series, For All Mankind. The show chronicles a very different end to the 1960s when Soviet Russia reaches the moon first and the Space Race steers history in surprising new directions. At the time of our interview in July 2020, COVID-19 was beginning to surge once again in the state of California. Our conversation naturally turned to the pandemic’s effect on the Hollywood machine. Source: Apple TV+ Dan Berger: How has California been holding up to the Shows back in our Star Trek days ran twenty-six pandemic, especially the entertainment industry? episodes a year. Now, a lot of shows do ten episodes per Mike Okuda: California has been trying to open up but year, which means that most people cannot support it’s a slower process than anybody thought. For one themselves working on a single television show. So you thing, the numbers are still up. Los Angeles is still end up working on this show here, then you work on that definitely a hot spot. Theoretically, film production has show there, and then you work on that show there. Then opened back up, but production is a complicated thing. the first show may start up again and you may not be There are so many individual crafts and jobs and tasks – available. So, it’s a brave new world. how do you reinterpret those tasks to be as safe as In a way it’s nothing new. Everyone in the film industry possible when you have situations like make-up artists in has always been at the whim of a lot of things. For a long people’s faces? For example, our job would be to sit very time, we were lucky enough to be working on Star Trek close to the director, watching over his or her shoulder, for eighteen consecutive years of television production, whispering to the script supervisor, and running which gave us extraordinary stability in a notoriously whatever info the actors need onto the set. How do we unstable industry. And during all that the film’s interpret our jobs so that we’re protecting ourselves and overlapped and Denise and I did books and things like the people that we work with? that. A couple of weeks ago we attended a meeting by Zoom of Now, even though we’re employed on For All Mankind, our union and they were telling us all not what we would in the past year–between the two of us–we have worked be doing, but the way they’re trying to figure out what to on a couple of features and on a couple of other series to do. It is just incredibly complicated. I’m glad they’re varying degrees. Some of them were fairly significant, smarter than I am. others were just little bits here and there; but that’s what DB: Has the shutdown totally disrupted the seasonal you have to do to make ends meet. We’re work for hire. nature of television production? DB: I just saw the teaser trailer for Foundation on Apple MO: There used to be a very definite pilot season and TV+ and it made me wonder, “Does this mean they’ve production season, but that really doesn’t exist anymore. finished shooting everything or what?” Are productions In a way, we’re living in a golden age of television. There still active at the moment, even with the shutdown? are so many productions happening, but because of all Denise Okuda: Yeah, post is working. Visual effects– the different outlets there isn’t really a premiere week they’re working on For All Mankind. I’m sure they’re anymore. Now, a television show starts when it’s working VFX on shows. I’m sure of it. One thing that the appropriate for the broadcaster or for the network; and it pandemic has made very clear is that there are a lot of may or may not be the traditional Fall premiere. jobs that can be done from home, over the internet. 28

Especially writers and a lot of folks in post-production. Maybe not so much the actors and the shooting company. MO: We have no insight into production on Foundation, but if they’ve already shot the live action portion or even have shot a significant portion of it there’s a tremendous amount of work that can be happening now. People– especially these days with visual effects–can do a huge amount of work at home. As an example, even though production on For All Mankind was shut down in early March, there were already several episodes of this season in the can. So our colleagues from editorial have been working and our colleagues in visual effects have been working. We’re getting a small but steady trickle of work relating to their work, and it’s been fun just to see this stuff come to life. DB: What are your roles on the series exactly? MO: We are technical advisers. They brought us on because we’re both die hard space geeks. One of the things we’ll do is sit on the shooting stage when they’re filming, say, a scene in Mission Control. And the director will ask, “What does this line mean?” or a cast member will ask, “Why am I doing this?” And we’ll say, “Okay, this console does this, and while you’re doing this you Chris Agos as Buzz Aldrin in season one of For All Mankind. should be keying in here and you should be looking at Source: Apple TV+ that screen because you want to make sure that this fuel level doesn’t drop too low. and our writers told our version of that. So, we sat down with actor Chris Agos, who plays Buzz Aldrin and said, For something that’s partially based in reality, that’s a lot “Okay, at this point when you see this alarm light go on, of fun. We shot a scene very early on with our version of here’s how you work the computer to get the alarm the Apollo 11 crew, and there’s something that happens code.” The Apollo guidance computer was an astonishing during the Apollo 11 mission that is pretty well known, piece of technological development. It was a huge leap forward in technology and, by today’s standards, is astonishingly primitive. Something that you think that should just come up automatically had to be keyed in using probably eight or twelve keystrokes. Chris just looked at me incredulously and said, “You’re kidding me. Buzz Aldrin actually keyed this in while they were approaching the moon?” And we looked at him and said, “Yep.” Another huge advantage is that one of the other tech consultants is Garrett Reisman, the real life astronaut. He’s been there. If we don’t know, we’ll call Garret and ask, “Hey, does this is work?”

DB: So, what has it been like working on this particular Remembering the past as it’s reimagined: Mike Okuda sits show in terms of what it’s trying to do story-wise? at the Network Controller station at Apollo Mission Control in honor of William Foster, on the set of For All Mankind’s first MO: One thing that’s really, really fun about the show is season. The museum-quality re-creation was overseen by it’s an alternate history. Even if you know the story of production designer Dan Bishop, whose credits also include Apollo 11, even if you know the story of what happened Mad Men. in this mission or that mission, we can still surprise you. You know how Apollo 11 beat the Russians to the moon? 29

DO: It’s very different. Mike and I usually work in the art department, and we’ve had such an interesting career working on Star Trek and then we went over to CBS, and DVD projects for home video–and now we’re back working production, but we’re not working in the art department. We’re technical consultants. It’s been an interesting experience. At this point our conversation pivoted to other subjects. Fortunately, production on For All Mankind was able to resume a month after our conversation on August 17, 2020. Apple TV+ must have liked what they saw, because they announced the renewal for a third season of the series on December 8, 2020, months ahead of the Season Two premiere on February 19, 2021. Apple TV+ has yet to announce a premier date, so keep your eyes peeled. Flying with the Eagles: Denise Okuda takes the Apollo 11 Lunar Module, Eagle, for a “spin” during production of the very first episode of For All Mankind. Surprise! In our version they don’t beat the Russians to the moon, and suddenly things happen differently. Even though the technology looks pretty much the same as you might know it in archival footage it’s different, and it’s surprising. And it’s fun. On the very first day of filming we were sitting on stage and Ron Moore came and sat next to us. He was really excited about the show and we’re going on because we’re both space geeks, and I’m thinking, “Okay, this is fun.” Houston, We Have Leftovers… And then Ron said to us, which was exactly the right thing to say, “I see this show as ‘This is the way you get For All Mankind imagines an alternate history that to Star Trek.’” propels the space program through 25 Apollo missions and a Jamestown Lunar Base by Okay. We’re sold. 1975. The reality is that nine Saturn V rockets launched Apollo missions 8-17 to the moon from DB: Damn. That’s pretty awesome. 1969-1972, but a grand total of twelve Saturn Vs were MO: It really is a lot of fun. We get to hang out in built in anticipation of additional missions. Budget Mission Control, we get to crawl around in the Apollo cuts and a shift in public opinion regarding national spacecraft. In fact, there was one scene when Apollo 11 is priorities put an end to lunar landings and the Apollo landing on the moon where this indicator light is missions, so what to do with the spare rockets? supposed to go on and, for whatever reason, there A highly modified SA-513, originally built for the weren’t enough special effects people on hand to flick all Apollo 18 mission, was used to launch Skylab 1 into the switches to make the lights light up. orbit on May 14, 1973. This Saturn V carried the DO: I’m not a special effects person and you’re supposed upper stage from a Saturn IVB retooled by the to stay in your lane. So I said to the special effects person McDonnell Douglas Corp for use as the Orbital – because he wanted me to help and he didn’t have Workshop module of the station. enough hands – I said, “I am not going to touch this SA-514 and SA-515 were originally intended for unless you give me permission to touch this because I am Apollo 19 and 20 Lunar missions. Most of SA-514 is not special effects.” But he said, “Yeah, I need your help.” on display at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, So I was, on cue, just flipping a switch and the light TX. Parts of SA-515 are displayed at the INFINITY would go on. Science Center in Hancock County, MS, the Johnson DB: How has working on this show compared to Space Center in Houston, and the National Air and working on, say, Star Trek? Space Museum in Washington, DC. 30

Screenings

Calling all Blue Blaze Irregulars in the Tri-State area! A rare big screen presentation of The Adventures Of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension has been scheduled for Friday, June 25 at 9:45pm at the Colonial Theatre in the Philadelphia suburb of Phoenixville, PA. The film will be presented from a 35mm print. The docudrama will be shown as part of the theater’s on going special programming of classic cult films. This screening will mark the return of the film to the Colonial for the first time in almost exactly a decade. Previously, Buckaroo Banzai was shown at the theater on June 3, The independent horror film Slapface with Dan 2011. For that screening, Blue Blaze Irregular Rich Hedaya, which we mentioned earlier this year in our “FilmBuff” Drees attended, staging a display of Buckaroo January issue, has since made its debut at the Cinequest Banzai memorabilia in the lobby. Details on what special Film & Creativity Festival, where it earned the Audience exhibits and more may be part of the evening’s screening Award in the category for feature thriller, horror, or sci- were still being developed at press time. fi. Writer/director Jeremiah Kipp has implied that a wide release will occur sometime this year, but no specific date has been announced. Another indy horror, The Mortuary Collection, hit home media and select digital services a few weeks ago, and is worth a look if you’re into horror anthologies. Clancy Brown appears as the mortician Montgomery Dark in the framework story interwoven around four other ghoulish segments. He gives a fine performance, one which earned him a Fangoria Chainsaw Award. We’ll be talking about the film more later this year in our Halloween issue. The comedy-drama Senior Moment had been stuck in distribution limbo since completing filming in 2017 before being purchased by Screen Media Films earlier this year, who quickly released it to theaters and on- demand services in March. The story of two aging If the Colonial Theatre looks or sounds familiar to you, friends, it reunites William Shatner and you may recall it was at the center of a 1958 attack from Christopher Lloyd. Trekkies will recall the duo a large, red Blob-like gooey mass believed to be from previously appeared together as onscreen enemies in outer space. The non-sentient creature was defeated by a Star Trek III: The Search for Spock… one of two group of teenagers who froze it using an assortment of movies that came out during the summer of 1984 in fire extinguishers. The Army then moved this Blob to the which Lloyd played an alien, and if you don’t know what Arctic. Climate scientists at the Banzai Institute are the other one was, you’re a monkey boy. Reviews for participating in the ongoing program of monitoring the Senior Moment are mixed at best, leaning low, but the frozen Blob, as concerns about climate change raise the casting may make it worth it for some fans. possibility of it dethawing from its icy prison. Down the road, Clancy Brown will be heavily featured –Rich Drees in the Dexter revival coming this fall, and look for Blue Blaze Irregulars in the Los Angeles area can catch Ellen Barkin to co-star with Kaley Cuoco, Kevin Hart, Martin Scorsese’s , New York, penned by and Woody Harrelson in the action comedy The Man Buckaroo Banzai scribe Earl Mac Rauch, at the New from Toronto, currently scheduled for January 2022. Beverly Cinema on June 25th, 26th, and 27th from a newly –Scott Tate struck 35mm print of the 1977 film. Keep an eye on the New Beverly website for ticket availability.

31

Finding lost footage for the Special Edition DVD By Sean Murphy For many years the only way to see any deleted footage from Buckaroo Banzai was to find a grainy bootleg workprint on VHS (anyone remember video cassettes?). The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension Special Edition DVD in 2002 changed all that by not only restoring the original opening of the film but also including fourteen cut scenes. And while this DVD seemed to fall out of the sky for Buckaroo Banzai fans at the time, the truth is that the special edition almost didn’t happen. As documented thoroughly in the Fall 2004 issue of World Watch One, W.D. “Rick” Richter explained how he discovered that there was originally a plan by MGM for a sub-par DVD release. "They didn’t even tell us they were going to do a DVD, and a fella who was hired to cut the tracks for the DVD, Chris Johnson is his name, was a fan. He worked for an independent sound cutting company that would routinely get jobs like this, and he went in all excited, I gather, but saw they were just going to slap together a soundtrack and do a real third- rate version of the DVD.” Once Richter heard the words “third-rate” and “DVD” in the same sentence, he leapt into action. “I immediately posted on his DVDSavant website, Glenn Erickson started calling MGM, and said, ‘Can I do anything to discussed the making of the DVD in his December 2001 convince you that you’re throwing this away? That this is review. Some of that information informs this article. a title you really shouldn’t squander or treat this lightly?’” Rebuilding the Home Movie Prologue Remarkably, MGM was oblivious to the fact that the film One of the best things about the Buckaroo Banzai had an official website at the time, created in support of Special Edition DVD is the inclusion of the original Buckaroo’s television development at Fox. “So we got the opening of the film, where we see a young Buckaroo and people at MGM to visit the Institute website, and they his parents in a home movie. This scene shows a Jet Car said, ‘Whoa, wait a minute. What’s going on here?’” test that goes awry when a bomb, planted on the vehicle by the villainous Hanoi Xan, kills both of Buckaroo’s Excited by the unanticipated prospects of tapping the parents. This footage is available on the DVD as a film’s still vital cult following, MGM scrapped their plans standalone scene or it can be played as the original for a cheap-and-dirty Buckaroo Banzai DVD project and opening to the film. rescheduled a release date for a new version. According to Richter, MGM returned with a small budget and said, The actual prologue footage, according to Erickson’s “If you folks will help, we’ll let you guys spend it all to do article, “was found intact on 35mm (instead of VHS) and the best DVD you can manage.” was therefore able to be reintegrated into the film…A series of outtakes of Clancy Brown’s narration were Mike Arick was hired by MGM to be the DVD’s producer found and a new audio opening cut from them, as no and also directed the Buckaroo Banzai Declassified [other audio] track was located.” This new audio opening documentary on the Special Edition. Mike’s video editor, led to a different structure and wording in the narration Glenn Erickson, cut together the documentary, the than found on the bootleg workprint. alternate opening to the film, and helped compile the video extras on the disc. What’s fascinating about both of these narrations is the fact that several different approaches to the voiceover World Watch One reached out to Mike Arick for an were recorded at the time. The focus of the workprint interview but he didn’t have any specific memories to prologue audio is discussing the rapid weapons race share about producing the DVD. Luckily, in a review while the new audio focuses on Buckaroo, who is 32

Source: MGM Home Video celebrating his fifth birthday. This shift in subject matter Aliens, were not on the VHS but were discovered moves the emphasis from the adults to Buckaroo, which amongst the 35mm work print trims. makes sense since the rest of the movie is all about him. Both versions of the prologue can be found in the The deleted footage found on the DVD is bracketed by Buckaroo Banzai article from Video Watchdog magazine. the ending of the previous scene and the beginning of the next scene to show the viewer where the deleted footage Missing, Presumed Lost fits within the released film. The discovery of the original prologue footage raised hopes that other deleted footage and audio could be 1. Backstage with the Cavaliers found and potentially reinserted into the film. Backstage at Artie’s Artery, the Hong Kong Cavaliers discuss the spectrographic analysis of “I’d have loved to replace the awkward dubbing of the the specimen found on Buckaroo’s car and President (in the hospital) that Begelman insisted on discover an image of a half nude woman in and, thus, have been able to share Ron Lacey’s original, Professor Hikita’s viewer. absurdly excellent impression of Orson Welles, but the audio track vanished,” said W.D. “Rick” Richter in late 2. Penny's Troubles 2020. “Then there’s BB’s line when he’s looking at the In her introduction mid-performance, Penny direction finder (prototype GPS) in his hand at Priddy speaks of her humiliation, motivating Yoyodyne. When New Jersey asks him where they are, Buckaroo to come to her defense. on the production track Buckaroo says, ‘I have no idea.’ Begelman couldn’t handle that coming from a ‘hero’, 3. The Conference Begins although Begelman himself, like Trump, was a pathetic The opening of the conference where Buckaroo, lost soul and certainly saw himself in a heroic light.” and the some of the Hong Kong Cavaliers, arrive and he lectures the press about the significance of Sadly, adding any additional audio or footage turned out his 8th-dimensional journey in the Jet Car. to be impossible. “None of the 35mm work print elements for longer cuts were found in the scraps and 4. “Dr. Lizardo?” snips of trims and outs still archived for the film,” In the middle of the conference, a reference to Erickson said in his review. Producer Mike Arick had the escaped Dr. Lizardo. hoped to reconstruct additional scenes that Richter was interested in seeing restored, but the prologue was the 5. “Give Me A Fix!” only 35mm film found that could be used. The Red Lectroids, escaping in their from the Although the workprint’s 35mm film elements were press conference, make a joke about sipping missing, all was not lost in terms of additional footage. electricity from a battery, as if it were a drug. “The only element for the missing scenes was Richter’s own VHS of a work print-in-progress transferred to let 6. A Little Down the sound cutters get a head start.” Erickson explained in A bit of down-time at the Banzai Institute his review. “This is the original for the many bootlegs, so conference room, a humorous contrast with the at least it’s good VHS quality.” mayhem happening concurrently on the road.

Amazingly, this VHS is what led to 12 additional missing 7. “Therma-what?” scenes being included on the Special Edition DVD. An Top secret chit-chat among the Red Lectroids at additional two scenes, Solve These Equations! and Illegal the Thermapod landing site. 33

8. New Jersey Meets the Cavaliers The Hong Kong Cavaliers arrive at the Bunkhouse with new member New Jersey, to begin investigating Yoyodyne Propulsion Systems. Computer expert Billy Travers is introduced as a member of the team.

9. John Emdall The “recorded” hologram of Black Lectroid leader John Emdall is played. After making her threat to fire a particle beam weapon at the Soviet Union, Emdall suddenly responds directly to Perfect Tommy’s concern about a possible nuclear war, showing that this is not a recording but a live hologram.

10. “Hanoi Xan?” In his bedroom, Buckaroo tells a distraught The Sherwood Productions receptionist is harassed by a Penny Priddy that his late wife (apparently a twin Lectroid during a makeup test, an example of behind the scenes footage that could not be used for the DVD. sister she never knew) was murdered by World Crime League criminal Hanoi Xan. interviews and behind-the-scenes video were shot” during the making of Buckaroo Banzai. 11. Penny Confronts Dr. Lizardo As she’s dragged away ‘to the pit’, Penny Priddy Sadly, “none [of the footage] was retained by anyone confuses Emilio Lizardo with super-criminal except director W.D. Richter, who only had VHS tape Hanoi Xan. copies, often with time-code windows.” Some of the interview footage was able to be utilized for the 12. “Solve These Equations!” Buckaroo Banzai Declassified documentary, but “funny Dr. Emilio Lizardo begs Buckaroo to help him original behind the scenes video wasn't used for lack of return to his home planet, and reacts when clearances.” Buckaroo addresses him as John Whorfin, his Red Lectroid alter-ego. Also, the Secretary of It’s disappointing that the original behind-the-scenes Defense gets tired of waiting on the bus. footage was apparently lost by the studio after all this time. And it makes sense that legal issues need to be 13. “A Piece of Cake” cleared before content like this footage could be officially Added business between Buckaroo, Perfect released. After all, big entertainment companies don’t Tommy, and New Jersey during the rescue of want to get sued. Penny Priddy. While it’s a bummer that we’re not able to see this behind-the-scenes footage today, maybe someday we’ll 14. Illegal Aliens all get to see it on a Special Edition Blu-ray. We can A discussion among the victorious Cavaliers as to hope. what to do with the captured Red Lectroids.

Erickson mused in his review about where the original Special thanks to Glenn Erickson for his original DVD 35mm workprint footage could be, stating that it was review and for letting us all know that this behind-the-scenes “undoubtedly carefully set aside, and... who knows? The footage still exists in VHS form. You can find Glenn’s reviews fact that Buckaroo was an independent [film] handed off and much more at the CineSavant/DVDSavant website. to a series of rights holders and libraries before coming to MGM didn’t simplify the research process.” Perhaps one day it will be discovered again and this deleted footage could be officially reinstated into the film. A brief lament for things unseen One of the most exciting things found in Erickson’s

Special Edition review is the revelation that “reels of star 34

Declassifying the Documentary By Sean Murphy

The Buckaroo Banzai Declassified documentary was directed by DVD producer Mike Arick using archival material, including existing interviews with the cast and crew shot during production on the film. A new interview with director W.D. “Rick” Richter was shot for the documentary and incorporated with vintage footage. The feature is just shy of 23 minutes long. Rick was kind enough to reflect on his involvement with the DVD during a late 2020 interview with World Watch One. Source: MGM Home Video World Watch One: What’s your memory of the still photos) from my “archives,” I don’t recall having experience helping with the DVD and documentary? anything to do with the structure of the documentary. However, I’m sure I poked my beak deeply into the Rick Richter: Well, if you have a bad experience you creation of the format and content for the on-camera tend to remember that, at least I do. Over the group of interview I gave at The Banzai Institute. For instance, I movies I've made, the unpleasant times are not hard to chose my own wardrobe! It also seemed important to be recall, unfortunately. And I have none of those about the right there, in the actual Institute, rather than in some making of the DVD. sterile Hollywood recording studio, sitting in front of I remember being amazed that we were actually going to blank background. I recall talking a lot on the phone be allowed to do something that had a real budget. I with Mojo about much of this, but I’d trust his mean, it wasn't just going to be made by anonymous recollection over mine because, as we know, he’s an people in Hollywood and then just dumped out there. obsessive/compulsive historian. To me it was almost unbelievable because that was a For the interview itself, I had brief access to that long time from when the movie came out and the movie astounding rock Buckaroo brought back from the 8th did not light the world on fire. So, why was I sitting there Dimension and had previously loaned to the production recording an interview for the documentary? Just (under heavy Cavalier guard) when we shot the press- because a group of passionate people had somehow conference sequence. Ditto with the Overthruster I made a major studio, people who didn't care about the arranged (with Mrs. Johnson’s help) to showcase in the film and didn't understand it, had somehow gotten them video. to say, “oh, okay, if you really think there's a giant fan There was no interview script because, not being a base out there, go ahead and do this.” Amazing. trained actor, I could never have memorized it. I recall WWO: What was your involvement in creating the making some notes for myself that gave structure to the documentary, besides being interviewed? interview and saved us all from a scatter-shot ramble on my part. We tried to do the interview in one long take to Rick: I think all of my answers here are going to be little make it feel as spontaneous as possible…no inserts or more than best efforts at recalling times long past, but, “coverage” to allow it to be manipulated later and made since the only reason for time is so that everything more ordinary. doesn’t happen at once, what I remember today is as relevant as what I remembered years ago. Or put WWO: Were the BB props from your collection? differently: Rick: The “props,” as you call them, that I showed on “Go, said the bird, for the leaves were full of children, camera were definitely not created by the Star Trek art Hidden excitedly, containing laughter. department. We can pretend they were fakes, if you like, Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind made for the movie, stuff I can claim I took home Cannot bear very much reality because Sherwood Productions would otherwise either Time past and time future have destroyed them or lost track of them through What might have been and what has been indifference. But those things sure looked like the real Point to one end, which is always present.” deal to me, and I left them at The Institute when I left New Jersey after the interview. ― T. S. Eliot “Burnt Norton,” Four Quartets Special thanks to W.D. Richter for once again taking the Other than supplying video material (and maybe some time to answer questions about days of yore. 35

Behind-the-Scenes of the Special Edition DVD By Sean Murphy World Watch One was lucky enough to interview Adam “Mojo” Lebowitz about his involvement with The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension Special Edition DVD. Mojo is a senior Previsualization/VFX supervisor and artist with an extensive background in visual effects. He was the first employee at Foundation Imaging, the company that created the Jet Car trailer for the proposed Buckaroo Banzai: Ancient Secrets & New Mysteries tv series. Mojo was happy to share some of the behind-the-scenes shenanigans he went through to get the Banzai Institute Archives content onto the disc given the existing space constraints of the DVD format. Getting involved to make a difference “MGM was finally going to work on the DVD [in 2001],” Mojo said, “Rick called me and asked if they could put the Jet Car trailer on the DVD and if they could give the trailer to Michael Arick. Mike was the one producing the DVD. And I said, ‘Sure. Of course, we’d be thrilled to put the Jet Car on there.’ “I put the Jet Car trailer on a digital videotape, because this is before you could send files like that over the internet, and hand delivered it to Mike Arick. I started asking him about the DVD in general, and what was going to be on the special edition. I was hopeful that there would be all kinds of behind-the-scenes footage [see the Finding lost footage for the Special Edition DVD article for more information]. And he Source: MGM Home Video said that, unfortunately, MGM was not interested in “Mike said, ‘Hey, if you’re willing to put that stuff paying to create a special edition DVD. It was basically together, I’ll be happy to put it on disc.’ I instantly just going to be the movie, an audio commentary, and contacted Mike Okuda and let him know that Mike Arick the jet car trailer. And I said to him, ‘Wow! Of all the was open to this extra content. I let Mike and Denise movies out there, it’s really a crime not to create a special know that I was going to be putting together material for edition DVD for Buckaroo Banzai. There is such a the DVD. Then it came time to figure out what special wealth of behind-the-scenes material.’ features would go on the disc. “Mike didn’t know anything about the history of “I spent a couple of months working on it. I can’t Buckaroo Banzai. He was just assigned as the producer remember how I decided, or how we all decided, what and this was just another DVD project for him. So, I would go on there. We knew it couldn’t be a lot of video explained the rich history of the project and the treasure material. It was only going to be a one disc and, because trove of material that Rick and Mac had in their archives. MGM wasn’t originally planning for it to be a special And Mike said, ‘Well, I would love to put it on there, but feature rich disc, we had to be careful about how much they’re not paying for me to produce all that stuff.’ I space was available on the DVD. There had to be enough replied that ‘I’ll be happy to do it for free’ because at that room for the movie and then we could work with just the time, I was working freelance. I was no longer at little bit of space left over.” Foundation Imaging and I was working from home on some projects. I had some money in the bank so I could Making a gap-less audio commentary afford to work on the DVD content without getting paid. I just really felt that this had to happen. We had to Audio commentaries on a DVD can range wildly in terms include this wealth of Buckaroo Banzai archival material of quality. Mojo, being a huge fan of audio somehow on the DVD. commentaries, wanted director W.D. “Rick” Richter and 36 writer Earl Mac Rauch to tell great stories and anecdotes Jersey, Dr. Emilio Lizardo, Lord John Whorfin, about the making of the film. Rawhide, Penny Priddy, Perfect Tommy, Pinky Carruthers, John Parker, Lo Pep, Hanoi Xan, Lectroids, “I didn’t want gaps of silence to happen with the and Toichi Hikita. Buckaroo Banzai audio commentary,” said Mojo. “And with many commentaries, I understand why that “The Banzai Institute Archives includes the Historical happens. Often the people who made the film are sitting Archives section with a Buckaroo Banzai Interview, there, in the studio, watching it for the first time in years Institute History, Badges, Hikita’s Diary, and the Banzai and they get caught up in just watching the movie again. Radio broadcast. The Technical Data section includes That means they’re not really analyzing it and thinking schematics for the Hong Kong Cavaliers tour bus and about what to say. So I watched the film and started to Complex 88. The Movie Archive section includes Movie make a list of questions that I thought any Buckaroo Tie-Ins, Film Locations, and Movie Reviews. There is Banzai fan would want to know the answer to.” also a section on the Hong Kong Cavaliers CD Covers.” “When it came time to record the commentary with Earl You can see some of this content, shared from Mojo’s Mac Rauch and W.D. Richter, I sat in the studio with archive, at the Buckaroo Banzai DVD Special Edition them and, just in case there was a period of silence or Files Overview. they weren’t sure what to talk about, I would prompt them with questions. I was kind of feeding them during “The other thing is that all of the menus on the disc, all the entire commentary section. My voice was actually on the summaries and all the bios, everything you see, that the initial commentary, but I didn’t feel like I deserved to was all written by Earl Mac Rauch. And I really, really, be on it asking the questions. I asked Michael Arick to really wanted MGM to make sure that there was a credit just edit me out of the commentary and he did.” for him on the disc, something that said ‘All menu material written by the writer of Buckaroo Banzai, Earl Raiding the Banzai Institute Archives Mac Rauch’. Sadly, they never listed that credit on there. I just want everyone to know that all that stuff was written by Mac.” Pinky Carruther’s 47,000 Unknown Facts It’s well known that Pinky Carruthers has an encyclopedic brain for tidbits and ephemera that he’s picked up during his journey on this giant blue-green marble. This wealth of knowledge was boiled down into an amazing textual feature on the DVD called Pinky Carruther’s 47,000 Unknown Facts that can be read on screen while watching the movie. “We wanted to have a text commentary track that had behind-the-scenes information,” said Mojo, “The text commentary was definitely a team effort. I started it off by gathering material and Earl Mac Rauch wrote new Source: MGM Home Video material. Mike and Denise Okuda, and some of their “I asked Earl Mac Rauch to go through all his archives, friends, provided some great quotes and extra material. which he did, to find any great text material we could use The commentary track also got some of its material from because we could put endless amounts of text on the the novel. This really was a full Blue Blaze Irregulars DVD as text didn’t take up a lot of space,” said Mojo. The effort and was actually a lot of work.” information Mac Rauch provided was spread across the With the volume of text that makes up the 47,000 multiple areas, including the Buckaroo Banzai Personal unknown facts, there was no chance that it would make Profiles section, the Buckaroo Banzai Character Profiles it by MGM’s legal department completely unscathed. section, and the Banzai Institute Archives. “I think my favorite story about MGM legal being overly “The Buckaroo Banzai Personal Profiles section covers cautious was with the text commentary track. So, in the five aspects of Buckaroo: The Musician, The Lover, The world of Buckaroo Banzai, these guys in the film are all Scientist, The Man, and The Adventurer. actors playing real people. Lewis Smith is portraying the “The Buckaroo Banzai Character Profiles section real Perfect Tommy in the film. One of the things I put in includes biographies of Banzai, Reno Nevada, New the text commentary track was that the actor, Lewis 37

Smith, got to know the real Perfect Tommy pretty well so “I really wanted to go into how the jet car was created,” he could portray him in the film. The idea was that they said Mojo, “And I tracked down the guys [Thrust Racing actually became good friends. Every now and then, the real Perfect Tommy and Lewis Smith would be bar hopping to see who would be recognized as Perfect Tommy first, since many of the actors in the film would often be mistakenly recognized as the real people. “MGM saw that and said, ‘Well, we don’t know about that. What if Lewis Smith is a recovering alcoholic? What if Lewis Smith reads something about him going bar hopping and it triggers him into relapse state? We can’t be responsible for that.’ “That is, I think, one of biggest stretches I’ve ever heard in my entire life. “I’m just making up some silly scenario that I thought was funny for the text commentary and their reaction to it was kind of a shock. I came back to them with the following; ‘What if I changed it from bar hopping to club hopping? Would that be okay?’ And they said, ‘Yes, that's Source: MGM Home Video fine.’ So, I changed it to ‘Lewis Smith has been known to go clubbing with the real Perfect Tommy. They enjoy owners Jerry Segal and George Haddebeck] in Southern taking bets as to whom will be recognized as Tommy California who really made the Jet Car and asked if I first.’” could interview them. I went out to their office and spent the afternoon discussing the Jet Car. Sadly, this would not be the first nor the last time that MGM legal would have concerns about content on the “I told them, ‘Look, we want to not so much write about DVD. how you guys made a safe jet car for a movie.’ I explained to them that, with the world of Buckaroo Banzai, it’s all Jet Car Deep Dive ‘real’. I said, ‘Let’s discuss how the Jet Car would really happen.’ So, we all sat there and they helped invent technology that may not have really existed, but things that would be necessary to make a real Jet Car. “The entire interview with them was a discussion of figuring out the technical aspects of what made the Jet Car real, as if it was a ‘behind the scenes’ article in Car & Driver. I love that thing. When you get done reading the Jet Car article, you will actually believe the Jet Car is real. We put a lot of time and effort into figuring out how that thing would actually work, so that was a fun one.” It appears that concerns were raised with using the Car & Driver magazine name, as can be seen in the following excerpt from the DVD, where the name was changed to Auto Enthusiast magazine. “In 1987, a small team of enthusiasts from Auto Enthusiast magazine were invited by the Institute to Source: MGM Home Video inspect the car, marking the first time its inner workings The Jet Car All Access section of the Special Edition, were revealed to the public; the resulting article was which included sections on Statistics, the Jet Engine, the suppressed by the United States Military, for reasons still Cockpit, the Overthruster, and Design, was a particular unknown. Several Freedom of Information Act petitions labor of love for Mojo. have finally seen the information declassified and what follows is excerpted from the original Auto Enthusiast feature, ‘Inside the Jet Car,’ seen here for the first time.” 38

The Jet Car All Access content is a fascinating deep dive The dedicated Photo Gallery includes images in the that blurs the real world and the movie world together. following catagories: 1930s, 1950s, Behind the Scenes, You can read the original version of the text from Mojo’s Buckaroo, Hong Kong Cavaliers, Jet Car, Lectroids, archive, with Car & Driver intact, at the BB DVD Special Penny, Scenes, and Villains. Edition Jet Car All Access page. Ionically, Mojo ran into more difficulties with MGM’s Banzai Radio! legal department when he wanted to include some images of official Buckaroo Banzai merchandise. Banzai Radio is a unique audio experience on the DVD in the form of an episode of the Banzai Institute’s ongoing “I actually have a little bit of a story about the View- radio show. Master reels. I was doing the legwork for putting the special features imagery together and Mike Arick, “I wanted to do an interview with Terry Erdmann, the obviously, approved everything. Of course, MGM had to publicist of Buckaroo Banzai, who had been hugely approve everything that was on there as well. instrumental in getting the film the fan base that it had,” said Mojo, “We couldn’t film an interview because there “I understand that studios are very, very, very cautious. I was no room for more video on the disc. Then I think studios are largely driven by anything that could remembered that part of the lore of Buckaroo Banzai is prevent a potential legal battle somewhere down the line. that there’s a weekly radio show, like a weekly podcast No matter how small it seems, they want to make sure all from the Banzai Institute. I thought, ‘Well, what if we their T’s are crossed and I’s are dotted. I presented the made a fake excerpt from one of the episodes of the pictures of all the merchandise and it was things like the Buckaroo Banzai radio show?’ View-Master reel, a picture of the Jet Car toy game, a picture of whatever we had. MGM said, ‘Well, I want you “I asked Mike Arick, ‘Can we do an audio interview?” and to make sure we have releases from all the companies he said, ‘Sure. There’s plenty of room for audio.’ Audio that put out this merchandise and make sure they would takes up much less bandwidth than video on the disc. So give permission to show a picture of their merchandise I got Denise Okuda and Terry Erdmann together in a on the DVD.’ room and she interviewed Terry as if this was a segment from an episode of Banzai radio show. I liked that and “Now, most of those companies that made the putting it together was a lot of fun.” The original merchandise were out of business. So, number one, I had interview was 45 minutes long and Mojo’s editing of the to demonstrate to MGM that the companies were audio involved cutting the discussion for clarity and actually out of business. I didn’t need a release form breath removal as well as EQ and dynamic range from those companies. But the big one was View-Master. compression. MGM said, ‘We need a release from View-Master giving us permission to show a picture of the View-Master reels The “original airdate” for the episode was October 18th, on the DVD.’ And I said, ‘Um, but they licensed 2000, and runs for approximately 10 minutes. The Buckaroo Banzai from you guys, so that should really following text from the special edition described the give you permission to put something on the DVD that contents of the episode: you already own.’ In this clip from the Banzai Institute's weekly “And MGM said, ‘Well, we want it anyway.’ So I had to syndicated radio program, host Denise “Catnip” track down the people at View-Master and explain the Okuda interviews Terry about his publicity work for situation. The first thing the View-Master people said to the movie. Headbands, The World Crime League, me was, ‘But you guys own it. We can’t give you and the efforts of Blue Blaze Irregulars across the permission to use something that you already own.’ I globe are just a few of the subjects they touch upon. said, ‘I know, I know, but I still need a letter saying it’s You can listen to this radio show audio, even if you don’t okay. Otherwise, MGM will not put the image into the have the DVD, where it’s posted on Mojo’s Vimeo page. disc.’ View-Master was kind enough to appease the neurosis of MGM and we got a release for that.” Images of Merchandise and Legal When entertainment companies are this jittery about There are tons of images and drawings from Buckaroo something they originally licensed, you have to wonder Banzai scattered across the Special Edition in the how anything ever makes it onto a special edition. Technical Data and Movie Archive sections. “We went through all of MGM archives of the Buckaroo Banzai Missing DVD Credits Restored imagery and picked a bunch of fun stills to use Mojo’s original intention was to make sure that the throughout the disc,” said Mojo. names of all the BBIs that helped with the special edition 39 were accounted for on the DVD. “I put together a huge list of names that needed to be on the DVD, people who have been instrumental in keeping Buckaroo Banzai alive. This was not just people who worked on the DVD, but people over the years,” said Mojo, “So I asked Mike and Denise to put together a list of people. We wanted that list on the DVD but, unfortunately, that didn’t make the cut at the time.” However, all is not lost. As Mojo was digging through his archives, he found the original list of names that he, Mike, and Denise compiled. The document opens with the following note from Buckaroo. FRIENDS OF THE BANZAI INSTITUTE

Were it not for the tireless effort of Blue Blaze Irregulars everywhere, the Institute simply could not Source: /Marvel Entertainment LLC function. I have prepared this list of notable Did you know that Tim “Tim Boo Ba” Monro has individuals whose efforts have repeatedly gone written almost ten articles for World Watch One beyond even my expectations and to whom I owe a since 2010? great personal debt. In some cases, we have listed only their BBI names—shrouding their true identities OK, I know what you’re thinking, “Get out of town, in secrecy for reasons of security. We salute you and for realz? Tim has written that many articles for wish you well. PROGRESS OVER PROTOCOL. - B. World Watch One?” Either that or, “What the hell Banzai does this have to do with the Special Edition DVD article?” You can now read the entire list of names on the Buckaroo Banzai Special Edition DVD Credits page. It’s true! This has nothing to do with the DVD article and Tim has written that many articles for WWO! Glancing Back While Moving Forward Check it out! Reflecting on his DVD experience today, Mojo had this WWO: June 2010 to say: “Nine times out of ten, when I run into a Buckaroo Banzai fan, I ask them if they’ve looked at the Interview with W.D. Richter special features of the Special Edition DVD. They’d say, Review: Wild Asses of the Kush ‘No. I haven’t gone through it yet.’ Go through it! I only wish we’d put more stuff on there.” World Watch One Review: Of Hunan Bondage heartly endorses Mojo’s recommendation. When you do, Annotations: A Tomb With A View set aside a few hours before you dive in, and make sure WWO: September 2018 you don’t miss the five Easter eggs on the DVD. Lizardo’s Overthruster Was More Powerful Than As the interview was wrapping up, Mojo had one final Banzai’s–Believe it!* suggestion. “Most people who see the movie have yet to read the novelization. If anyone reading this interview, *Read this one at least twice right now in the newsletter, has not read the original WWO: August 2019 novelization of Buckaroo Banzai, what are you waiting for? Go find it on Amazon and read it. It's amazing.” The Buckaroo Crushes Cult Competition timing couldn’t be more perfect. Buckaroo Banzai Sekrit Orogins Against The World Crime League sequel novel hits the streets in October, 2021. There is no better time for WWO: May 2021 (This Issue! See Pages 11-12!) Buckaroo Banzai fans to dive back into that world. Project Sawtooth: Masado Banzai’s Jet Car Our heartfelt thanks to Mojo for this interview, and Earl Mac Rauch and W.D. Richter for keeping torch lit along with all the The opinions of Tim “Tim Boo Ba” Monro are his own and fans, and the Banzai Institute for their continued contributions do not reflect the official editorial stance of this publication. to the betterment of humanity.

40

The Making of Into the 8th Dimension by Dan Berger Introduction On August 16th, 2016, Shout! Factory released a Region A Buckaroo Banzai Blu-ray in the United States, the first such release since MGM’s Special Edition DVD in 2002. The DVD had covered a significant patch of content territory, much of it appearing on Shout! Factory’s Blu- ray as well, but room remained to explore the film. At a slender 22 minutes running time, the 2002 Buckaroo Banzai Declassified featurette made the best use it could of archival interview and behind the scenes footage from Source: SHOUT! Factory the making of the film in 1983. This left plenty of room release and then it's redemption over the years,’ for a more all-encompassing retrospective documentary especially during the period where most people couldn’t on the Blu-ray. get access to it even if they tried. Fox didn’t even have At the same time, Producer Michael Felsher, the man the video rights available because they were with tasked with creating new content for the Shout! Factory Vestron. Vestron had them for five or six years or Blu-ray, was adamant about taking the project in its own whatever, and then it was just gone.” direction. “Mainly it was the documentary, that was the Clearly, there was going to be a lot of story to tell, and big thing,” Felsher said. “I didn't want to repeat what the clock—she was a-ticking. “From the time that Shout! had been done in the previous extras, which was kind of Factory talked to me about it to the time we were done in-jokey. It was kind of insular, like they were from the with it was probably four months,” said Felsher. “Out of Banzai Institute and stuff like that. I didn’t want to go that four months we probably only shot for two, and then that way with it. I wanted more of an actual nuts and the editing was maybe three weeks. I don’t really recall bolts, making-of piece and that ended up being the the specifics of it; I just remember that it was rushed.” documentary.” Based on an email received from director W.D. Richter In terms of a subject ready for a comprehensive deep- dated March 19, 2016, the production window for Into dive, Felsher couldn’t have picked a better film to the 8th Dimension roughly took place from February document. “Buckaroo Banzai was not a cheap, down- through May of 2016. The game, as they say, was afoot. and-dirty affair,” he began. “It had a lot of problematic technical components to it and a story that, when you Getting the Band Back Together look at it on paper, you say, ‘What is this?’ Then you watch the movie and you’re like, ‘What was that?’ I was 2016 was already a busy year for Felsher and his kind of in awe of the fact that everyone, even if they production company, Red Shirt Pictures, when Brian weren’t reasonably sure that they knew how to swim, Ward of Shout! Factory approached him to create they all jumped in the deep end anyway.” content for one of their up-coming Blu-ray releases. Shout! Factory, an American home video and music “But, for me, a big part of the story was the failure of the company specializing in pop culture titles and the film’s marketing and the fact that it really did not do very collector’s market, had just licensed The Adventures of well when it came out, and at the same time Buckaroo Banzai from MGM to create the first Blu-ray understanding that this movie was a challenge for any edition of the film for the American and Canadian marketing department to try to figure out,” he markets. They had decided on Red Shirt Pictures to continued. “How do you sell this thing to an audience create new, unique content to compliment and expand conditioned for Indiana Jones and movies? upon some of the features appearing on the 2002 Special How do you pitch the thing? What is your audience for Edition DVD. it? That was where I felt the real story was: not just, ‘How was this crazy-ass movie made?’ but, ‘How did it “2016 and 2013 were the two busiest years I ever had,” get unleashed upon the world and why didn’t it connect?’ Michael remembered. “2016 was insane. When I went That was the thing I really wanted to try to get across in back and looked over my notes and some emails from the documentary, ‘How did someone back this crazy that period—just to remind myself about what happened idea, how did this this crazy idea translate to the screen, when—at any point I was working on six different and then the disaster of the theatrical campaign and the projects and trying to figure out, ‘What do we do for this and this and this?’” 41

“…and they got featured in the Texas Chainsaw Massacre Two Blu-ray,” noted Buckley’s collaborator, Ethan Halo, another strong advocate of preserving a film’s past through Blu-ray and DVD bonus content. “Let’s archive it.’”

Source: Red Shirt Pictures Buckley, like Felsher, looms large in the realm of content for Blu-ray extras, particularly on horror titles. Her In the eleven years since creating Red Shirt in 2005, curriculum vitae covers everything from acting, Felsher had worked on literally hundreds of Blu-ray directing, effects, and make-up credits, to journalistic featurettes, documentaries, commentaries, and other tours of duty at Dread Central, Fangoria, Diabolique, content for a variety of studios. When approached about and others. Buckley has nearly two hundred producer Buckaroo Banzai, Red Shirt was already busy at work on credits on DVD and Blu-ray featurettes, as well as several projects, including Just Desserts: The Making of producing several feature-length films including the Creepshow for Synapse Films, Return of the Killer 2018 punk rock slasher The Ranger. She is also the Tomatoes for Arrow Films, and The Texas Chainsaw owner/operator of Black Mansion Films, a studio she Massacre 2 for Shout’s horror brand, Scream Factory. and filmmaker/producer Elise Salomon formally These were just three of the thirty-two films featuring launched in 2020. content created by Red Shirt Pictures in 2016, adding to his already substantial resume with Anchor Bay and “[Mike and I] were very close for a very long time on so Lionsgate starting around the turn of the millennium. many projects,” said Buckley, “and I know from working in the business that Buckaroo Banzai was one of the Speaking with Felsher in July 2020, it quickly became stars in heaven that, if he ever got this title, he would obvious that the mad crush of projects on his plate in lose his mind. So one day he comes up to me and says, 2016 had dimmed his recollections of working on Into ‘Heather, it’s happened. We have the title Buckaroo th the 8 Dimension. “Prior to Buckaroo I think I might Banzai. Curate this thing for me.’ For Mike, this was one have done a couple of things or been attempting to do of his most important projects.” some stuff for [indie UK distributor] Arrow for their edition of Buckaroo Banzai, and then Shout Select got it. Contacting the On Screen Talent Or maybe it was vice versa, I can’t recall,” Felsher said. “But the reason I would have gotten Buckaroo Banzai With a direction in mind and a lot of ground to cover in was because I’d done a lot of their Scream Factory stuff. very little time, the heavy lifting of tracking down talent Shout Select was in its infancy, and Buckaroo Banzai in front of and behind the camera and scheduling was one of the first big titles that they did.” interviews fell on Buckley. “My job is to do the upfront pitch and the coordination, and then Mike is pulling it In the case of masterminding the production on Into the through post-production,” she noted. “There’s nothing 8th Dimension, his answer was to bring in a friend and crazy. It’s just contacting people and pitching an trusted pro to run the show. “My producer on that interview. I think everyone’s story is important.” [project] was Heather Buckley,” Felsher said. “I brought her on because, at the time that it was going on, I had so With Felsher thinking big on the documentary’s scope, many other projects…and they were all big projects. I there was a lot to pitch and coordinate. “There were a lot couldn't handle everything at once, so I put Heather in of people [to interview] on this one,” said Felsher. “I charge of this one because I knew she could handle it.” knew this was going be a feature-length doc, or very close to it, and we cast a very wide net. I was just It’s clear that Heather Buckley’s passion for the archiving throwing it out to everybody and seeing whoever we and preservation of film history, particularly on the could get.” special effects side, is a big part of what makes Into the 8th Dimension shine. “That’s how I connected with Casting a wide net proved to a be a real benefit for Michael Felsher before being hired by Michael Felsher,” Buckley. “This was one of the easiest discs to put noted Buckley. “I saved a whole bunch of photography together because, as soon as I reached out to the talent, a from Texas Chainsaw Massacre Two—the actual lot of them were like, ‘I loved making this film. I love the photography and the negatives—because they were going director. I need to be involved,’” Buckley remembered. “I up for sale on eBay and I grabbed them because, I’m an was actually on the road to Savannah with my friend archivist. I’m going hold on to them. I’m not going to sell Anya, who is a weird fiction writer, and my phone would them to other people, that way they can all be in one explode with all the actors going, ‘Oh, we heard about place.” Buckaroo Banzai! Is this about Buckaroo Banzai’?’ And so many people had wonderful stories, and loved that 42

mentioned to their reps, everyone said, ‘I need to talk about this movie. I love this movie,’ and even the bigger names were like, ‘Let me work it into my schedule.’ Where things didn't work out, it came down to scheduling because we were working on a really tight deadline.” Interviewing one big name in particular became a priority. “Actually, John Lithgow…Felsher set that up because he was doing Raising Cain, so that was already in the bag,” said Buckley. “That was actually someone that I wish I had set up the interview with them, but Michael was able to get him.” “Getting John Lithgow for me was imperative,” Felsher explained. “I love the fact that he’s always spoken so highly of Buckaroo Banzai over the years, because some actors can be like, ‘I was in this weird cult film that didn’t do anything—anyway I don’t want to talk about it.’ Lithgow is fine with it. He’s like, ‘I loved playing Lizardo, are you kidding?’” Buckley had priorities of her own when it came to

Heather Buckley. Source: Heather Buckley tracking down cast members. “Christopher Lloyd came to us this way,” Buckley explained. “I was at South by movie, and got in touch with me instantaneously—not Southwest working as a journalist and there was a movie just their reps or their managers but the actual actors. I called I am Not a Serial Killer and Lloyd was in it. So I think Pepe Serna was maybe the first guy to call me. He met Lloyd at South by Southwest and we did a great was the first to respond to my note in a bottle, and interview with everyone from the cast and crew of that genuinely excited.” movie. Lloyd is one of my favorite actors of all damn time—Judge Doom (Who Framed Roger Rabbit), Jim Not everyone in the cast were able to respond Ignatowski on Taxi—and I was able to reach out to him themselves, however. “I remember talking to Clancy and coordinate it with his manager and he said ‘yes.’” Brown’s people and he was recording stuff for Sponge Bob and I said, ‘I’m aware that your client is sometimes a “When I get interviews like that, I personally fly over red crab,’ and they laughed,” said Buckley. from Jersey to LA on my own dime to do the on camera interview,” she continued. “We got along so well that If anything, the sheer number of positive responses when I Am Not A Serial Killer played IFC Center in New proved to be a complication during the editing phase, York City I also did the live Q&A with Lloyd there.” but a good problem to have. The magnitude of the response definitely left an impression on Felsher. “This documentary was one of those times where we got almost everyone we went after,” he said. “Usually when you cast a wide net like that you assume, ‘Okay, well, we’ll put out feelers to fifteen people. Maybe we’ll get nine if we’re lucky.’ Out of the fifteen, I think we got fourteen. So I was like, ‘Holy shit!’ I don't remember the final count exactly, but it was that close.” There were, of course, absentees. “With Jeff Goldblum it probably just didn’t work out because of the timing, but there wasn’t a hard ‘no’ from him,” said Buckley. “With Jeff Goldblum and Ellen Barkin there were problems coordinating schedules; but no one was like, ‘No. No Key players: In addition to Peter Weller, John Lithgow way.’ If they could make it, they wanted to participate in (Above) was a subject of particular interest for producer the project. If there’s any sort of take away from all this Michael Felsher. Lithgow remains a fan of his Buckaroo it’s that I never had a project that, as soon as it was Banzai experience to this day, along with many of the cast and crew. Source: SHOUT! Factory 43

“Getting Christopher to talk about the film was great, because I’m sure he, on some level, was like, ‘Oh good, I can talk about something that's not Back to the Future,’” Felsher added. “This is just my opinion, but I think Christopher Lloyd gives the greatest middle finger in cinema history in Buckaroo Banzai. It is the most emphatic ‘fuck you’ with the middle finger that I have ever seen an actor give. I'm just delighted every time he does it right behind Lizardo’s back, it’s so much fun to see.” For Buckley, providing an opportunity to bring people together was as important as securing the talent and scheduling the interviews. “A lot of these guys hadn’t Makeup artists Tom Burman (L) and Bari Dreiband- seen each other since the film,” she explained, “so I Burman (R) discuss their ups and downs during the production of Buckaroo Banzai. Source: SHOUT! Factory would try to set up the interviews on the same day at the same time so the guys could meet each other. So, like, “Tom Burman was important to get to know—the same Pepe Serna and Billy Vera came in on the same day. thing with Kuran—because I’d work with them on many People miss each other because there’s been so many other projects moving forward. They did so many of the years since they’ve made the movie. I also see these discs FX during the eighties of course. Tom and [Makeup as a chance for a reunion.” Supervisor] Bari Burman (credited as Bari Dreiband)—I think we’ve interviewed most of the Burman family. Between the pitching, the coordination of schedules, and Hoyt Yeatman supervising the motion control work, and the answering of phone calls and emails that go along trying to put together the VFX team was very important with it, there is also research and actual on camera to me so we could get their stories.” interviews to be shot. Fortunately, Buckley has collaborators to help in these key areas. When getting Sometimes circumstances prevent key players from into the nuts and bolts of the research, that collaborator appearing on screen. “So I will go to the ends of the tends to be Ethan Halo, especially with interview prep. Earth to document this stuff,” Buckley explained. “Greg In the case of Into the 8th Dimension, “…I probably did a Jein was not going to do an on camera interview, so I deep dive into the effects myself with Ethan, who writes was like, ‘But can we get his work?’ If we can't get the on a lot of these questions for me, and we do research camera interview, I want them represented on the disc together to make these discs,” Buckley explained. “Then, somehow because it's important for everybody to see once everyone says yes and the footage is shot, all that their work and what goes into it and the process of magic is in Michael Felsher’s hands. But it's a lot of filmmaking because it just doesn’t appear on screen.” finding the people to say ‘yes’ to these projects.” Where there’s a will, there’s usually a producer finding a Preserving the Visual Effects way to make things happen. Such was the case with Buckley. “There’s a guy who does VFX archiving named Of particular importance to Buckley, and a subject dear to her heart, is visual effects work and the processes that bring them to life. “I try to do a deep dive into the FX SFX and VFX: Extended Play and VFX on my end to try to get a lot of that imagery Want a deeper dive into the effects on Buckaroo because I know those teams archive, and that’s how we Banzai? Several of the crew unable to appear in Into the can show a lot of process,” she said. “And that’s how we 8th Dimension have their work documented elsewhere do our jobs. I’ll reach out to people because I feel, more on the web: than anything when I work with Mike and work on my discs, that a lot of it is about archiving. I especially love Animator Chris Casady talks about creating many of the working on the FX and VFX.” electrical and other animated effects for Buckaroo Banzai in the My Work on Buckaroo Banzai 1982 video A natural outcome of “reaching out” to members of the short on Vimeo. VFX community is networking, a key ingredient in any Mark Stetson (miniatures supervisor), Greg Jein producer’s success. “Okay it’s like [Effects Supervisor] Peter Kuran…I may have met him for the first time on (miniatures construction), Ron Gress (model maker), and Leslie Ekker (model maker, uncredited) appear in a this project, and we bonded because we’re both from BUCKAROO BANZAI miniature effects segment from New Jersey and because he was a visual effects Berton Pierce’s excellent documentary Sense of Scale. supervisor on so many films,” Buckley explained. 44

Gene Kozicki and he goes around and archives VFX, like the post effects, for a lot of people,” she said. “He was very key in getting us all the images and video of that miniature work from Greg Jein, because Gene already had it documented himself or he was able to get us documentation for it.” That documentation is of paramount importance to Buckley. “It’s these amazing artists behind the scenes working together in collaboration to create this stuff,” she said. “Especially everything from the eighties because you don’t see a lot of miniature work now. You don’t see a lot of stop motion work anymore and all that was practical. Anything that has, like, rotoscoped hand animated lightning—that is the time period when that was happening.” Orphan of the Storm Speaking with Buckley, it becomes clear that there is a humility and devotion to the preservation of stories One potential disappointment to interviewing someone about the people and processes of filmmaking that define about a given project is discovering what might have her as a producer. “I want to pull the onus away from the been, but ultimately never happened. In the case of the producer because, given the opportunity, I think, with Shout! Factory Blu-ray content, the lamented absentee the right guidance it’s just how you get these stories from was a featurette about Earl Mac Rauch’s novelization of these generous people,” she explained. “I said the same Buckaroo Banzai. thing when I won two consecutive Rondo’s. My job is just to reach out and say, ‘We thought about you.’ It is “Heather introduced a new sub-genre of novelization the people who say ‘yes,’ it’s Gene who’s archiving all of interviews to Blu-ray supplements,” explained Ethan the VFX all over Los Angeles; it is all of these people that Halo, “the first one being Dennis Etchison for say, ‘I want to tell this story,’ and, ‘I’m going to take time Videodrome. Then Alan Dean Foster for The Thing.” out of my busy day to tell you a story.’ The people who Buckley confirmed, “Had I gotten Earl Mac Rauch, that will look through their slides, who will go through their would have been our first novelization interview.” archives. They are the heroes of every disc I've ever worked on.” “With Buckaroo Banzai, the nature of that film—as a cult film especially—invites obsessiveness,” Halo Editing a Wealth of Interviews continued. “I love the novelization for it, which I read By the time Buckley was done wrangling the people, back in the day and which I still have. It has all kinds of research, and on camera interviews necessary for Into footnotes to his other adventures which were either the 8th Dimension, it was clear that Michael Flesher had totally non-existent or had maybe been earlier drafts of an embarrassment of riches on his hands to edit into a the film, but has been long since excised; sort of an final form. “To Heather’s credit, she got a hold of some early tongue in cheek way to hint at a kind of a people I didn't think we’d ever get; Christopher Lloyd, Buckaroo Banzai universe. They gave this wonderful Peter Weller, and John Lithgow are in there,” he said. “It texture and a real sense of history, and I think that the was so important because, sometimes when you get documentary materials on the Buckaroo Banzai disc actors to interview, they don't have a lot to say because it has some of that. But it was a shame Earl Mac Rauch was just a gig for them and they moved on.” wasn’t able to participate, because he’s an interesting guy.” On the flipside, it soon became apparent to Felsher that what made Buckley’s job easier was about to make his “I see now that the email from Richter says Earl Mac job more challenging. “When you’re dealing with a dozen Rauch wasn’t available because he went to go buy some interviews for a documentary, that’s a lot of people to watermelons and he never came back,” noted Buckley squeeze in there and a lot of story,” he explained. “The Halo laughed. “It’s called commitment to a bit, man.” shooting of the film was the least challenging part of the documentary because the shooting of it, by and large, Buckley laughed in response. “He just stepped out, and was like most other films. They had their problems and for the rest of 2016 it’s like, ‘Where is he?’” they had their issues and so forth, but it’s like, “We cast Sadly, the world may never know. it, we shot it,” but then once you get into the editing 45 room a whole other story kind of takes place. So that was a challenge trying to figure out how to balance all that properly.” In fact, Felsher juggled a total of twenty-two separate interview subjects. The absence of Earl Mac Rauch in particular proved disappointing, but navigable. “Even though Earl Mac Rauch didn’t participate, Rick could speak so eloquently about Rauch and how all of that went down that we could cover him without having him there,” Felsher said. “But you need to really make sure you understand the Tag it and bag it: As in all matters Institute-related, a copy of genesis of the film and that it stands alone. That’s why I Into the 8th Dimension has been retained by Mrs. E. Johnson think the documentary ended up being as long as it did. for archival purposes. Source: BBI Rolo Tomasi This wasn’t a situation where you could rush through, That’s a Wrap ‘Well we had this idea and then we get the script and then we went to shoot.’ It’s more like, ‘No, you really It is perhaps inevitable that no single documentary can need to get into where this whole universe came from capture every personality and aspect of its subject. In the and then cover the rest.’” case of Into the 8th Dimension, however, it was not for lack of trying, and with very little fat to trim from the Fortunately, the nature of Buckaroo Banzai’s quirky and source material. “There wasn’t a five hour documentary manifold personality proved a fertile ground for the and we whittled it down to two,” said Felsher. “The first people involved to talk about the film. “I found that rough cut of the documentary was, I think, 0ne hundred everyone who worked on this film did it because they twenty-five minutes and it got cut down to one hundred were really intrigued by the movie,” Felsher said. “So and twenty. If there is any missing material, I doubt it they had a lot of memories along the lines of, ‘Yeah, I was of any real significance.” didn’t know what to make of this but I had to do it, because there’s nothing else like it.’ All the actors really Given the time crunch to make the documentary, it was stepped up to the plate and had something interesting to fortuitous that the pieces fell into place with relative say rather than, ‘Yeah, I got an offer through my agent, I ease. That said, “rushed” appears to be the default did the movie, blah blah blah.’” setting for content production. “I never have enough time to do these things, that’s a complaint I always Part of the craziness behind translating the Buckaroo have,” he continued. “It’s always like, ‘Oh, if I only had Banzai script to the screen was the firing of original one more week.’ But the problem with that is, maybe you Director of Photography, Jordan Cronenweth during the get one more week, and then something else comes up. production. Surprisingly, “That happens more often than Then it becomes, ‘Well, I need one more week, but then you think,” said Felsher, “But certainly in a situation like I’ll need one more week.’ I’ll take as much time as you this where it’s the first time director…and Cronenweth can give me and then I’ll never deliver anything. It’s good was no slouch; it’s not like he was some guy who had to have deadlines because, at some point, you’ve just got never done anything before. Begelman just didn’t like to stop. Buckaroo Banzai was in a maelstrom, that was the look he brought to the film, and then Fred the whole thing. It was in the eye of the .” Koenekamp was brought in.” Making sense of the chaos can’t help but change how you At the mention of Producer David Begelman, the notion look at something. Such was definitely the case for is proposed that a documentary of its own could be made Felsher and his perceptions of Buckaroo Banzai after about his history with Buckaroo. “Yeah that’s the thing making Into the 8th Dimension. “It certainly enriched my with him,” Felsher acknowledged. “The problem I have is appreciation of all the time and effort that went into the I wish he could have been around, just to hear his side film,” he said, “and all of the dedication and blind faith the story. There were so many things that he did that I that so many people had in terms of coming over; like couldn’t understand, even from a business standpoint, Lithgow feeling comfortable enough to give a why he did them. I mean, the look of the movie…how performance like that for a brand new director. Richter could he not know what he’d get from Cronenweth? Why had been a screen writer, but he had never directed would he bring in this guy? Why would he do this? Why before. Lithgow had the potential to come off as really would you treat your director like this? I was just like, ‘I silly, in a film that maybe would just be terrible, and the don’t get it. I don’t understand.’” guy would never be able to live the thing down. But he

46 believed in the project, and all the actors and all the The Commentary technicians all believed in it, even if they didn’t fully understand what it was that they were doing.” With post-production winding down, an opportunity for additional content presented itself in the form of an “And that left an impression on me, like, ‘Man, that’s audio commentary recorded by Denise and Mike interesting that they all had faith in this thing in one Okuda. “I don’t remember how we got in touch,” said form or another, even if they didn’t fully have their Buckley, “but as soon as we locked eyes it was like, ‘We heads wrapped around what the hell it was going to be.’ need to get you on a commentary.’” And that says a lot about any creative endeavor when you get that feeling like, ‘This is worth something. Denise recalled the Okudas receiving a call from the There’s something of value here. Let’s do that.’” producers, and that, “We were also smash busy on something. I don’t remember what we were doing but “That was something that I really came away with,” we were really busy. We didn’t have time to do it.” Mike Felsher continued. “I appreciate just how much passion added, “We were doing a project for CBS–I can't was put into this by everybody, and the tragedy of its remember what. And we kept saying, ‘Can’t do it. Can’t release, and the fact that it didn’t connect at the time but do it.’ They were very kind. They wanted to involve us the fact that it's so beloved now. I think that time has and finally we said, ‘Look, we’re available this coming proven that this movie was definitely something. Not Sunday,’ and it turned out that was the last possible day everybody is going to love it. It's not a film for that they could incorporate the commentary. So they everybody, but the people who get it, who can ride that screened the picture, and there you go.” As Buckley wave and go, ‘Oh yeah, this is something. I love this,’ summed up the experience, “It was sort of a ‘Hail Mary’ tells me a lot.” moment at the end of the project.” Making the documentary was also an opportunity to Persistence paid off with a commentary to the film once again marvel at the journey all films take from unattached to the “in-jokey” premise of the Special script to screen. “That’s the main thing I come away Edition DVD, but the time crunch didn’t make for an with, when I do any of these documentaries, is just the ideal situation. “We had no prep time,” said Denise. hard work and dedication of the people who go into any “We were planning on re-watching the movie and I movie-making endeavor,” he confirmed. “Making don’t think we even had time for that.” Mike movies is pushing a boulder uphill. Every single movie is remembered having some notes prepared from another pushing a boulder uphill. Sometimes the boulder is kind project, but Denise said, “We basically did it cold. I of small, and the hill is not that steep, and the weather is don't think we've ever listened to it afterwards.” nice, and you’ve got a lot of strong people around so it’s According to Mike, “If anything, we looked at each other not that big a deal. Other times the hill is a ridiculous and went, “Oh…that kind of sucked.” But the recording incline, the boulder is eighty-five thousand times bigger engineer was saying, ‘Oh, that was fun.’” than you thought it was going be, it’s raining and it’s wet and everything is a challenge. Anyone who can get a “Fortunately, we had had the benefit of actually having movie made—to me, that’s always a minor miracle, done a fair number of voice commentaries for Star Trek especially something like this.” episodes, so we had some idea of how to do it—of the thought process,” he continued. Normally you try to Reflecting on the making of Into the 8th Dimension for prep–you watch it in advance, you write some notes– Felsher came with mixed emotions. “Looking back, I but there were a couple of times where we went into the wish that I had the time to be more involved with the studio to do a commentary on one episode and the documentary, just because it was such a crazy, active producer would turn to us and say, ‘Hey, we have so and period for me,” he lamented. “But thankfully Heather so writer coming in for the next episode in half an hour. was on the case and able to bring it across the finish line. Would you do a commentary with them?’ And we She managed to get a lot of great people and, at the end haven't watched the episode in years. So he kind of of the day, she was really the hero of the project.” cajoled us, and we were like, ‘Oh, okay.’ It was actually Those heroics are on full display throughout Into the 8th fun because we got to chat with one of our former Dimension. No single documentary can uncover all of a coworkers, which is always fun to do. In the case of the subject’s ancient secrets. When something hidden is Banzai disc, it was just us.” revealed, a new mystery tends to present itself. The Difficulties aside, the commentary is a welcome documentary leaves room for some unexplored territory addition; filled with trivia and anecdotes of interest to in the future, but it remains the most comprehensive Banzai fans. The performances are all the more account of Buckaroo Banzai on film to date, and is likely impressive considering that they were done cold. to remain so for many years to come. 47

Buckaroo Blu-ray/DVD Extras! By Dan Berger and Sean Murphy In January 2002, MGM’s Special Edition DVD of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai came as a revelation to Banzai fans. The DVD provided a significant upgrade to the videotape and LaserDisc releases of the film from Vestron Video, and others, beginning in 1985. By the early aughts, those legacy video formats were staring down the barrel of their own obsolescence and previous Banzai releases were out of print and becoming difficult to find. The Special Edition DVD also represented a substantial extension of the Banzai universe, expanding further beyond the offerings of the Banzai Institute website begun in 1998. In effect, the DVD became a showcase for the convergence point between Buckaroo’s world and our own. For Blue Blaze Irregulars, the Special Edition’s documentary, commentary, and other content represented some of the few fresh glimpses into Buckaroo’s world fans had seen in nearly two decades.

By 2014, both the Special Edition DVD and Blu-ray Source: Dan Berger technology had been widely available for a decade or The film - 2.35:1 Anamorphic Widescreen. more. Umbrella Entertainment released a Region B Buckaroo Banzai Blu-ray on July 5, 2014 in Australia Screen-specific audio commentary with director W.D. and Arrow Films released a Region B Blu-ray on July 20, Richter and writer Earl Mac Rauch 2015 in the UK. Both of these releases included some of the content from the Special Edition DVD, but the Arrow The Alternate Opening W/Jamie Lee Curtis (Length: Video Blu-ray included new interviews and new content. 07m 14s). All three releases present the Alternate Opening as a standalone viewing experience. The Then, on August 16th, 2016, Shout Factory released a MGM DVD and Arrow Video Blu-ray also incorporate Region A Buckaroo Banzai Blu-ray in the United States. the alternate opening into an optional presentation of Once again, content was carried over from the DVD, but the entire film. The Shout! Factory disc includes the this Blu-ray contained a new two-hour documentary and alternate opening on a separate DVD in the set, new audio commentary. unconnected to the main theatrical presentation. With the MGM Special Edition DVD, Arrow Video, and 14 Deleted scenes from the workprint (Length: 14m Shout! Factory Blu-ray releases dedicated to offering 17s) new insights into Buckaroo Banzai, there is a lot of special edition content. To see all of it, particularly the 1. Backstage with the Cavaliers content on Arrow Video’s Region B release of the film, 2. Penny's Troubles you will have to invest in a region-free Blu-ray player. As 3. The Conference Begins you’ll see, the investment is well worth consideration. 4. “Dr. Lizardo?” 5. “Give Me A Fix!” Sharing is Caring 6. A Little Down 7. “Therma-what?” Even in its dated format, the 2002 MGM Special Edition 8. New Jersey Meets the Cavaliers DVD remains a vital source of unique Banzai content. As 9. John Emdall such, it has been raided repeatedly for featurettes, 10. “Hanoi Xan?” photos, and commentary by subsequent releases of the 11. Penny Confronts Dr. Lizardo film. 12. “Solve These Equations!” The following is a list of features that appear on the 13. “A Piece of Cake” MGM DVD, the Arrow Films Blu-ray, and the Shout! 14. Illegal Aliens Factory Blu-ray releases of Buckaroo Banzai: 48

Buckaroo Banzai Declassified documentary - Length: To Each Their Own 22m 51s It’s a given that the entertainment industry will always New Jet Car Tailer for Buckaroo Banzai: Ancient Secrets be in search of new and exciting ways to separate cash and New Mysteries TV show pitch - Length: 02m 26s from the wallets of fans the world over, and Buckaroo Banzai fans are no exception to that rule. In addition to Original Buckaroo Banzai Teaser Trailer - Length: 01m the inevitable repackaging of previous releases, 17s Buckaroo Banzai has benefited from continued efforts to The Arrow Blu-ray release also contains the following present new, unique content as part of the bargain. Here content from the MGM DVD: are the features and content offered exclusively on each of these releases. Banzai Radio audio extra, featuring Denise Okuda and Terry J Erdmann - Length: 10m 2s MGM Special Edition DVD (2002) The Photo Gallery, with 167 images, is presented as The granddaddy of the bunch, the Special Edition DVD one long section on the Arrow Video Blu-ray but stands the test of time in terms of the sheer bulk of fan- broken up into the following sections on the Special friendly content packed into a single disc. With video Edition DVD: 1930s, 1950s, Behind the Scenes, features eating valuable storage capacity on the disc at Buckaroo, Hong Kong Cavaliers, Jet Car, Lectroids, an alarming rate, the DVD found a variety of ways to Penny, Scenes, and Villains. pack vast quantities of text, audio, and still-image based content into the release for Blue Blaze Irregulars to Unlike the MGM DVD, both the Arrow Films and Shout enjoy. These are the extra features that can only be found Factory Blu-rays have English subtitles. on the DVD: As you can see, the Blu-ray releases are indebted to the Pinky Carruther’s 47,000 Unknown Facts subtitle Special Edition DVD for much of their additional track content. The Buckaroo Banzai Personal Profiles section which covers five aspects of Buckaroo: The Musician, The Lover, The Scientist, The Man, and The Adventurer. The Buckaroo Banzai Character Profiles section includes biographies of Banzai, Reno Nevada, New Jersey, Dr. Emilio Lizardo, Lord John Whorfin, Rawhide, Penny Priddy, Perfect Tommy, Pinky Carruthers, John Parker, Lo Pep, Hanoi Xan, Lectroids, and Toichi Hikita. The Jet Car All Access section includes information and images about Statistics, the Jet Engine, the Cockpit, the Overthruster, and Design. The Banzai Institute Archives section includes the Historical Archives section with a Buckaroo Banzai Interview, Institute History, Badges, and Hikita’s Diary. The Technical Data section includes schematics for the Hong Kong Cavaliers tour bus and Complex 88. The Movie Archive section includes Movie Tie-Ins, Film Locations, and Movie Reviews. There is also a section on the Hong Kong Cavaliers CD Covers. Enhanced Nuon features (for Nuon DVD players) There are a total of five Easter eggs on the DVD.

Spoken languages: French Source: Arrow Films Subtitles: French, Spanish 49

Arrow Films Special Edition Blu-ray (2015) While Umbrella Entertainment was the first to release a Buckaroo Banzai Blu-ray in 2014, Arrow Films was the first to go that extra mile by presenting new features with their 2015 release of the film. Content exclusive to the Arrow Films Blu-ray release includes: High Definition Digital transfer of the film from original elements by MGM

5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio John Lithgow (L) and Peter Weller (R) shake hands at The Tao of Buckaroo–An interview with Peter Weller NYC’s Lincoln Center in 2011. Source: SModcast Network (Recorded April, 2015) Length: 16m 36s (John Bigbooté), Billy Vera (Pinky Carruthers), Lord John–An interview with John Lithgow Michael Boddicker (composer), Michael Fink (VFX (Recorded April, 2015) Length: 13m 39s supervisor), Lewis Smith (Perfect Tommy), Damon Q&A with stars Peter Weller and John Lithgow Hines (Scooter Lindley), Gerald Petersen (Rug moderated by filmmaker Kevin Smith, filmed at Sucker), Linda DeScenna (set decorator), Eddie Lincoln Center, New York (2011)* Length: 43m 27s Marks (costume supervisor), Aggie Rodgers (costume designer), Hoyt Yeatman (motion control), and Visual essay by critic and author Matt Zoller Seitz– Richard Marks (co-editor). Length: 02h 08m 16s Length: 18m 08s Audio Commentary with Michael and Denise Okuda Closing sequence without on-screen credits–Length: 4m 03s While not as diverse in its exclusive offerings, the heft and depth of the Into the 8th Dimension documentary set Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly a new standard in comprehensive coverage of Buckaroo commissioned artwork by Matthew Griffin Banzai from concept to release, and all points in between. The Okudas’ commentary adds a welcome fan- Booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic friendly gateway to additional trivia about the film. James Oliver, illustrated with original stills Future History Shout Select Collector’s Edition Blu-ray/DVD (2016) It is easy to imagine a future that contains yet another release of The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai. A 4K The Arrow Films release of Buckaroo Banzai was a Ultra HD Blu-ray release of the film remains elusive, and tough act to follow, but followed it was by Shout! Factory the docudrama’s 40th anniversary is a mere three years in 2016. Shout! rose to the occasion by creating a two down the road. What better way to celebrate than with disc Blu-ray/DVD set in their Shout Select line, an Anniversary Edition of the film? featuring: Less certain is how future releases will address new Into The 8th Dimension–A two-hour retrospective content for their editions. The well of Banzai minutia documentary including brand-new interviews with runs deep, but it must hit a bottom at some point. the cast and crew including W.D. Richter (director), Interviews with Ellen Barkin, Jeff Goldblum, Laura Neil Canton (producer), Clancy Brown (Rawhide), Harrington, and several other cast and crew members Carl Lumbly (John Parker), Peter Weller (Buckaroo could add unique offerings to future collections, and the Banzai), Bari Dreiband-Burman & Tom Burman stories of how Buckaroo was promoted at science fiction (make-up and alien designers), Peter Kuran (effects conventions and through the West Coast offices of this supervisor), Pepe Serna (Reno Nevada), John publication are topics well worth exploring on film. Lithgow (Lord John Whorfin), Christopher Lloyd *World Watch One’s very own Sean Murphy makes an Whether it’s collecting existing work in a definitive appearance in this video at around the 41m mark to present future edition, new never-before seen content, or some Smith, Weller, and Lithgow with copies of our NYFF/NYCC combination of the two, chances are good that a new guerilla edition of the newsletter. Read more about Strike Buckaroo Banzai disc will appear in e-commerce sites Team Manhattan’s adventures in the Big Apple in our October and store shelves on some not-too-distant day. You can 2016 issue. bet your last nickel that, whenever they do, there we are. 50

From the Colorado Bureau physical gatherings yet, but in the meantime event this year. Be aware of some COVID- they’re keeping the tradition alive online. related accommodations, including no ticket Office and Great Sand Dunes sales at the door and limitations on multi-day Observation Post National Day of the Cowboy (July 24): The fourth Saturday in July is set aside annually passes to help thin out crowding. Plan Editor’s Note: The pandemic continues to to recognize those knights of the American accordingly. wreak havoc on the kinds of events typically West, past and present. Attend a rodeo, National Museum Day (Sept. 18, USA): noted on our Team Banzai Events wear a Stetson, plan a cookout, watch your Whether it’s devoted to art, history, science, Calendar. Be sure to check the links favorite Western, and spare a thought for the or some other topic, wherever you live provided for up-to-date information on any hard-working men and women who embody there’s probably a museum near you, so why in-person gatherings listed. –DB the job behind the lifestyle. not take advantage of this day when many of them offer free admission? JUNE Apollo 15 50th Anniversary (July 26-August 7): “Apollo Season” continues with the 50th World Oceans Day (June 8): Every day is CAST BIRTHDAYS anniversary of Apollo 15, the mission that World Oceans Day if you’re Steve Zissou, introduced lunar rovers to the Moon. The JUNE but the United Nations officially sets aside Michigan Space Grant Consortium will Jessie Lawrence Ferguson (June 3), Peter this date to encourage celebration and celebrate the “all Michigan” crew on July 30. Weller (June 24) conservation of our planet’s oceans. Look for Check out the links above for details. ways to participate as organized locally or JULY globally by groups like The Ocean Project. AUGUST Robert Ito (July 2), Pepe Serna (July 23) Dan Hedaya (July 24) Bill & Ted Day (June 9): 2021 marks the first DEF CON 29 (Aug. 5-8, Las Vegas, NV): year you can celebrate this following a third The preeminent annual convention for AUGUST movie joining the series. Plan a virtual hacking and computer security issues. This Lewis Smith (Aug. 1), Kevin Rodney viewing party, brush up on history, write year they’re running in hybrid mode, Sullivan (Aug. 3), Carl Lumbly (Aug. 14) some world-changing music, but above all, cautiously resuming meatspace operations be excellent to each other. but also streaming on Discord. Billy Travers SEPTEMBER International Buckaroo Banzai Day: (June neither confirms nor denies that he’ll be James Keane (Sept. 26), Ronald Lacey 11): Recognizing the date on which Dr. B. present, either physically or virtually. (Sept. 28) first penetrated the dimensional barrier. 37th Anniversary of The Adventures of ACTIVITIES FOR ANYTIME Buckaroo Banzai (Aug. 15): The summer of National Eat Your Vegetables Day (U.S., Pandemic restrictions are loosening in some June 17): Ideally you should eat your ’84: The third Star Trek, the second Indiana Jones, the first Ghostbusters… and a bunch places, but if you’re still sticking close to vegetables on most days, but we’ll be very home and feeling boxed in, here are some disappointed if you don’t make at least a of wet-behind-the-ears kids portraying our own Dr. B and assorted friends and foes. ways to stay virtually connected with the token effort today. outside world. PulpFest 2021 (Aug. 19-22, Mars, PA): JULY Explore the roots of pulp fiction and how it Radio Garden: Tune in to live feeds from Heavy Metal Knitting World still influences stories today. This year’s radio stations all over the world. Championships (July 9, Joensuu, Finland): theme is “Love in the Shadows,” honoring 12 world-class museums you can visit The competitive hobby born from a humble anniversaries for Love Story and The online: This list from Mental Floss contains question: Is it possible to knit with eyes Shadow magazines. links to a dozen notable museums offering closed and hands behind the neck in the National Bow Tie Day (Aug. 28): Tommy’s virtual views, including the Louvre, the style of guitarist Yngwie Malmsteen? The our resident fashionista, but Buckaroo’s no Guggenheim, the Smithsonian, and NASA. inaugural event was held in 2019, then 2020 slouch when it comes to style. Join him in Queso meditation: Some people like to was postponed due to the pandemic, so join rocking this timeless look today. calm their minds while visualizing a Bodhi us now in heralding their triumphant return! tree or listening to gentle ocean waves. For Anniversary of Apollo 11 (July 16-24): SEPTEMBER others, it might come from watching this Take some time to reflect on the “one giant Dragon Con (Sept. 2-6, Atlanta, GA): One of relaxing 8-hour clip of nachos being leap” humanity took, setting foot for the first North America’s largest and most venerable languidly dipped in creamy melted cheese. time on a celestial body other than Earth genre-friendly gatherings. Screen and voice Explore World Watch One on Facebook: when Neil Armstrong stepped onto the lunar actors, authors, animation and comic book The Banzai Institute’s strategic information surface on July 20, 1969. professionals, gaming, costuming, and more. section is busier than ever these days. Make Comic-Con@Home (virtual event, July 23- Rose City Comic Con (Sept. 10-12, sure to catch all the latest Institute news at 25): Comic-Con International isn’t resuming Portland, OR): RCCC resumes as a physical World Watch One’s home on Facebook. 51

This page is provided for meditative purposes. Feel the Zen.